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THE 

Laborers' Catechism 

THE OPEN ROAD TO THE NEW UTOPIA 

BY 

Thomas Jefferson Sandiord 

AUTHOR OF "LEX FORI." "MOVE ON OLX> MAN." ETC. 



PRICE PAPER 50 CENTS 



THE 

Laborers' Catechism 

THE OPEN ROAD TO THE NEW UTOPIA 

BY 
Thomas Jefferson Sandford 

AUTHOR OF "LEX FORI," "MOVE ON OLD MAN." ETC. 



"I will speak out, I will be heard. 
Though all eaith's systems crack: 
I'll not abate a single word. 
Nor take a tittle back." 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE SOCIETY OF THE TRUE REPUBLIC 

POST OFFICE BOX 196 

ST. PAUL, MiNN. 






Copyright by 

THOMAS JEFFERSON SANDFORD 

1913 



^.^ 



©Ci.A.3 5 08 9 



PREFACE 



During twenty-six years, I have struggled to 
impart to mankind the ideas taught me by a 
great genius, now deceased. In season and out, 
I have advocated a system of voting which 
would stop vote-bujdng, a system of collecting 
taxes which would stop tax-dodging, and a sys- 
tem of issuing money that would prevent money- 
cornering, devised by the late David Reeves 
Smith. 

Although a member of the New York Bar and 
an ex-assistant tax-commissioner of Greater New 
York City, in neither the democratic, the repub- 
lican nor socialist party, have I been able to 
obtain a fair hearing, in my efforts to explain 
these ideas. 

Hoping that the truth-loving reader will per- 
ceive in this Catechism a practical solution, along 
the lines of natural justice, of the apparently 
intricate problem of Wealth-Oentralization, 
which now threatens the destruction of our repub- 
lican form of government, I have prepared these 
questions and answers. 

Christopher Columbus spent eighteen years 
striving to interest some one with piirchasing- 
poioer in his irrefutable theory, that the world 
was round. Finally he succeeded; and the dis- 
covery of a new hemisphere, which he gave to 



royalty, was the result. But David Keeves Smithy 
immeasuraMy surpassed him by showing man- 
kind hoWj for the benefit of all, to justly use two 
hemispheres. 

I believe that every right-reasoning-mind that 
reads these pages and considers^ the three sj'Stems 
herein described, as essentially one whole frame- 
work, will be convinced that the most vicious 
practices today in existence, under all forms of 
government, are the vote-buying of politicians, the 
tax-dodging of valuable-wealth-monopolizers and 
the money-cornering of bankers. With these per- 
nicious practices eliminated, the majority of our 
minor evils will regulate themselves without 
legislation. The world can then take a stride 
along the road of Progress, which will bring hap- 
piness to humanity in a measure unknown to the 
seraphic dreams of those good souls who have 
worked so loyally in the past to promote the vrel- 
f are of mankind. 

St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 15, 1913. 



This little volume is dedicated to the memory of 
my father John Sandford, a native of Ireland and a 
believer in the New Utopia, whose love and advocacy 
of Truth have been so implanted in me, that, notwith- 
standing my social ostracism and the financial dis- 
crimination against me by bankers in my native city, 
I have never failed to array myself on the side of 
every principle which 1 considered true, no matter 
what the consequences. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON SANDFORD. 



The Laborers' Catechism 

LESSON I. 

Has a man a right to life? He has. 

^Yho is the judge as to ivhether a man has or 
has not the light to life? The whole people of a 
nation, acting dnlj^ and regularly in tlie expres- 
sion of their will. 

What is your reason for saying a man has a 
right to live? The nature of things and the inher- 
ent desire of all rational beings, force me to con- 
clude that a man has a right to life, except when 
society decrees that in order to more effectually 
preserve the lives! of the many, the single life 
must be forfeited. 

What do you mean by the nature of things? 
The fitness or adaptability of one animate or in- 
animate thing on this earth to another. The fit- 
ness of grass and trees to grow on our globe's 
crust; the tendency of water to flow down hill or 
to its level ; the capability of sand to fit into and 
around a rock ; the tendency of this ea:rth to more 
on its axis and around the sun; the disposition 
and ability of man to sustain himself by devour- 
ing the products of the soil; the proneness of 
plants to seek light; the aptitude of male and 
female to con>sort; the tendency of lakes and 
rivers to fill up with sediment and a thousand 
and one other tilings. 



8 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

Why have things these qualities or ivhy do they 
acquire them? I cannot give tlie original^ remote 
cause. I can only now and then explain an ap- 
proximate cause and am liable to be mistaken 
about that. Generally, we can only say ^^it is/' 
but I know not the ^^ whys'' or ^^Y>'herefores." 

// a man has a right to live according to the 
consensus of civilized humanity^ tchat other right 
is essential to a manJs enjoying and exercising his 
right to life? A right to the ]^jeans of living is 
indispensable to the right to life. 

What are the means of living? Air, land, wa- 
ter, sunshine, and any material thing which has 
not been produced by indiyidual and collective 
man. 

Hoiv can the means of living he justly enjoyed 
by all mankind so as not to invpair^ in the smallest 
degree y the rights of every single individiial? By 
adopting a system of ownership, which when ap- 
plied to the MEANS OF LIVING^ will uot unjustly 
exclude anj^one and will assure every person an 
equal opportunity to use the means of living as 
each sees fit, without abridging or interfering 
with the rights of anyone else. 

Are all men horn free and equal? They are 
not. 

Why are they not? Because different environ- 
ments make men differently unequal. 

Explain tchat yon mean. When a babe is born, 
in an unhealthful climate, on barren soil, of fam- 



THE LABOEEES^ CATECHISM 9 

ished and imbecile parents, who are possessed of 
weak minds and diseased bodies, it is not the 
equal of a babe born in a healthful climate, on 
fertile soil, of well fed and intelligent parents, 
who possess bright minds and vigorous bodies. 

What did Thomas Jefferson mean ivhen he 
tcrote in the preamble to the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ^^that all men are created equal f^ He in- 
tended, undoubtedly, to say ^^that all men were 
created with an equal right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness." He was too intelligent 
to write ^^that all men are born with equal 
ability." The offspring of the lowest beggar 1^ 
not generally, the equal, mentally or physically, 
of the child born of intelligent, healthful and 
industrious parents who live in a state of com- 
parative independence; yet, the beggar's child 
has as good a right to life, liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness, as; the son or daughter of the 
proudest prince of the world. 

Hoio^ can the babe of a beggar and the offspring 
of a prince each enjoy its equal right to life^ 
liberty^ and the pursuit of happiness^ tvliich in- 
clude the MEANS OF LIVING? By establishing a 
system of ownership under which it is recog- 
nized, that all real and personal property is com- 
monly owned property, and that no real or per- 
sonal property is the exclusive and private prop- 
erty of any single individual, as against the state, 



10 THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

LESSON II. 

Who owns this world? The whole people at 
present living on the globe own this earth and 
every part of it. 

What do you mean hy the term Oivnershipf 
The ownership of a thing is ^^the right to use the 
thing.'' 

Does each generation own this earth separate 
from and independent of succeeding generations? 
They do not. Each generation owes it to the suc- 
ceeding generations to do nothing with this sphere 
which will abridge or hamper the succeeding gen- 
erations' right to u^e it. 

Bi/ ivhat term in the science of political econo- 
my is the Tandy air, fire^ mater ^ and various other 
natural elements, entering into the composition 
of the u/orld (excluding man), correctly de- 
scribed? By the term Wealth. 

What is Wealth? ^^Wealth is anything v/hich 
may be used or utilized." 

Why so? Because mankind is generally agreed 
that those things should be classified as Wealth 
which are useful to it. Wherever we find a hu- 
man being who has an abundance of useful things 
we invariably speak of him as ^^wealthy." 

What is the essential property of Wealth? 
Utility. 

What is Utility? ^^Utility is that which satis- 
fies a desire or supplies a want." 



THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 11 

Is all the Wealth on this globe owned? Yes. 
It is owned by the whole people now inhabiting 
this sphere. 

Ha^e dead generations, or any memher of them^ 
any right to hind with obligations the present gen- 
eration? They have not. That is, dead genera- 
tions have no right to prescribe the manner in 
which living generations shonld use the wealth 
of this earth. 

Why not? Because the living generation can- 
not be justly bound by any contract in which they 
have exercised no consent, any more than we of 
the present generation can justly burden and 
limit the rights of coming unborn generations. 

Has not this generation a right to make an im- 
provement which ivill extend into a succeeding 
generation? It has, but the improvement must be 
performed with the labor of this generation. This 
generation has no right to mortgage or direct the 
labor of a succeeding generation any more than 
the dead citizens of Athens had a right to tell us 
how and at what, we of this generation, shall 
labor. 

By what term is Wealth tchich is owned cor- 
rectly described? By the term property. 

How is the Ownership of this earth naturally 
divided? It is naturally divided into layers of 
Ownership, the highest of which, is that vested in 
the whole people of the earth, who own the entire 
globe. The next highest Ownership is that 



12 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

vested in tlie people of a nation, who have the 
highest right to use (own) all the real and per- 
sonal property within the jurisdiction of the na- 
tion. Within the United States, next to the 
Nation's ownership laj'er, is the Ownership of 
each separate state, which is always subordinate 
to that of the Nation. Next under State-Owner- 
ship m County-Ownership Avhich is subdivided 
into City or Town Ownership, which in turn, is 
composed of Ward-Ownerships; and Ward'- 
Ownerships are divided into individual Owner- 
ships. Individual-OwneTships, which are inferior 
and subject to all the higher Ownerships, are 
divided into Ov\ nerships according to the lengths 
of the terms; as, for life, for years, for months, 
for weeks, for days, etc. Ti7^o oions that rock 
Jijing in the road? The whole people of the 
earth. But the ivhole people of this earth cannot 
get near the rock^ Jet alone use it. True. But 
they can justly decide what individual shall own 
or use the rock, by deciding that the person who 
T\ill pay the rent on the highest valuation of it 
into the public treasury shall use it. 

Why pay the y^ent into the puMic treasury? Be- 
cause the whole people of the world own the rock. 

Why not pay the rent for the rock into the 
treasury of the loorld? Because there is as yet no 
public treasury of the world and, besidesi, each 
nation has so many rocks of its own that it does 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 13 

not care about the use of one such rock as that in 
the road, which has little or no value. 

Is the oivnership of the land and everything 
ichich conies from it the same as the ownership of 
the rock? It is; and every piece of rock, wood, 
iron, land, gold, air, y>^ater, sunshine, moonshine, 
or the whole of such things! on this globe, belongs 
to the whole people ; and every individual on earth 
owns an undivided share in these things, just as 
tenants-in-common own real property under the 
present law. As the^e things cannot be divided 
into infinitesimal particles and the particles given 
to each individual owner, the ownership of each 
individual is respected and exercised when any 
of these things is rented out fairly to the highest 
bidder and the rent divided among the individual 
owners of the Nation, or expended for the benefit 
of each individual owner of the Nation. 

How can the various Oivnerships of indi- 
viduals^ districts^ cities^ counties, states and 
nations he reconciled and enforced? By requir- 
ing each subordinate ownership to give way when 
it interferes with the exercise of a higher owner- 
ship, and by compelling everj^ individual owner 
of wealth (which is anything useful) to paj^ rent 
or public taxes, annually, at a two per cent rate 
on the full value of the wealth he is using or 
owning, into the public treasury. 

Would requiring an individual owner to give 
icay to the otcnership of the town or sonic otJici' 



14 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

higJier oicnership^ effect the indwidual-owner a 
hardship? It miglit in some cases, but as the 
basic principle of our form of republican govern- 
ment is ^^doing the greatest good to the greatest 
number-' the individual's welfare must be sub- 
ordinated to the welfare of the greatest number. 
Yet, wherever an individual is effected an injury, 
in this manner, he is entitled to reasonable com- 
pensation by due process of law. 

Does every man own any part of this earth 
as much as any other man? He does. 

Does each man oivn all this earth as much as 
any other man? He does. 

Can one man justly otcn more of this earth 
than another? He can, provided he pays higher 
public rent or a two per cent tax on a higher 
valuation of it, than what any other man can 
or will pay to the people for the property. 

Can this earth he divided so that each man can 
get his equal physical share? It cannot. But it 
can be divided on a basis of value, in such a 
manner, that each man can get very nearly the 
exact share of the valuable earth to which he is 
naturally and justly entitled, according to his 
ability to pay public rent or taxes on the full 
value of the quantity of the people's wealth 
which he desires to use. 

What do you mean hy the use of the term Value 
in such a division of the earth? I mean pur- 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 15 

CHASING-POWER wliich may be described as a 
relation between men and property. 

Are Value and "^^ptirchasing-power^^ identical? 
They are. 

Can you further elucidate ^'^purchasing-poicerf 
Pnrchasing-power shows the relation between the 
owners of property and the not-owners of prop- 
erty on one side, and the property on the other. 
The greater the advantages to be derived from 
property by the owners, the greater is the pnr- 
chasing-power exercised by snch owners, and vice 
versa. Any property which is high in purchas- 
ing-power enables its owner to accomplish his 
purposes, such ars making contracts, v>ith much 
more ease than can an owner of property which 
is lov\^ in purchasing-power. While it may be 
good for an individual-owner to have the things 
he owns high in value, it is not good for those 
who own none of such things. 

Is high purchasing-potcer or value good for all 
oivners of property f It is, when the owners are 
fevv^ in number, but if everj^body posseissed an 
equal quantity of valuable wealth it would then 
make no difference, whether or not the purchas- 
ing-power of property was high or low. As it 
is impossible to enable everybody to possess an 
equal quantity of valuable wealth, for any con- 
ceivable length of time, it is better for the ma- 
jority of mankind to have the purchasing power 
of property low; otherwise^ the scheming, grasp- 



16 THE LABOEEES' OATEOHISM 

ing, and provident part of humanity will exercise 
too great advantages over their fellow beings. 

7^ high pn/rchasing -power good for the not- 
owners of property? It is not. 

Why not? Because when the not-owners of 
high-purchasing-power-property desire to use 
any, they must give a greater quantity of their 
labor or useful articles produced by them, in 
order to get the high purchaiSing-power-property, 
than they would were the purchasing-power of 
the property low. The less the not-owners of 
purchasing-power-property are compelled to give 
for useful things, the more easily can they satisfy 
their wants and gratify their desires, which are 
among the chief purposes of humanity's: exist- 
ence. 

By ivhat is the pitrchasing-power of the otvners 
of property effected? By the supply of the prop- 
erty; the difficulty of obtaining it; the desire to 
possess it and a great many other things. 

Do the oioners of property strive to keep the 
value or piirchasing-poiver of their property high? 
They do, with very few exceptions. 

In ichat manner? By limiting the supply of 
their property to the workers as the landlords 
do, in refusing to sell their land at a low price 
or to lease it at a low rent. Coal-lords, oil-lords, 
iron-lords, food-lords, wood-lords, machinery- 
lords, money-lords, etc., also limit the supply of 
their valuable property in the same manner. 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 17 

How can the value or piirchasing-poioer of 
property he reduced? By establishing a form of 
government under Avhieli no one owning property 
can hold it out of nse, without annually paying 
the people a two per cent rent or tax on its full 
value. 

How could you make it unprofitable for a per- 
son to hold property otit of use? By taxing the 
owner of the property on its full value whether 
it was in use or not. 

LESSON III. 

Is it just to tax property on its full value ichen 
it is hringing in no revenue? It is. 

Why so? For the reason that taxing property, 
or rather the owner of property, at its full value 
either forces the owner to employ it in such a 
manner that it will bring in a revenue, or the 
owner will be compelled to turn the property over 
to some one who will employ it to bring in a 
revenue, or at least it will save someone from pay- 
ing a third person a revenue. 

Does the voMie of property measure or take 
into consideration the revenue being derived from 
the property by the owner? It does and more. 
It takes into consideration not only the revenue 
being derived, but also the revenue that might be 
derived from the property. 

Would the full value of the property show to 
what extent the ouyner of the property was enjoy- 



18 THE LABOREES' CATECHISM 

ing advantages over those who possess no sitch 
property? It would. 

In ichat loay? For example : suppose that Mr. 
"Ay^ on an isolated island^ had a cellar full of 
bricks and his neighbors had none. The value of 
the bricks or the purchasing-povfer exercised by 
Mr. ^^A'' would be exactly equiyalent to the value 
of the things the neighbors Y\^ouId be willing to 
give to ^^A'^ for all the bricksi; but should the 
neighbors begin to supply thenrselves with bricks 
from some other source, the value of ^^A^s'' bricks 
would commence to diminish and continue dimin- 
ishing in pur chasing-power J until the neighbors 
had obtained all the bricks they required; then 
the bricks in ^^A's" cellar Avould be very mnch 
lower in value or purchasing-power : consequently 
^^A's'' pur chasing-po veer exercised through own- 
ership of the bricks, would be very much reduced. 
In this way the advantages which ^^A'' at first 
enjoyed by his high purchasing-power through 
the ownership of the bricks, would be displayed 
in their high value, and the diminished advan- 
tages would be shown in the lower value of the 
bricks, within ^^A's'' cellar after the neighbors 
had supplied themseives with bricks from another 
source. 

Would the fall in the value of the bricks make 
them any less useful? The reduction in the pur- 
chasing-power exercised by ^^A'' through the own- 
ership of the bricks, would make them less useful 



THE LABOEE.ES' CATECHISM 19 

as CAPITAL with whicli to engage in a mercaiitiLe 
enterprise. But so far as satisfj ing a man's need 
for houses or supplying his want for shelter, they 
would be none the less useful. 

Do all things possessing the qualification of 
utility alicays have the relation expressed by 
value? They do not. Air for instance is very 
useful hut it has no value. 

Why has air no value? Because the supply of 
air is unlimited and, up to the pTesentj no man 
has been able to fence it off or reserve a part for 
himself or othere, or to keep enough of it out of 
use to force others needing air to suffer for the 
Avant of itj as the owners of land, oil, coal, Avood, 
flour, sugar, etc., do with these articles. Air in 
its natural state, heretofore, has not been monop- 
olized so as to reduce any person's supplj^ of it. 

But^ am I not paying more rent for the room 
I occupy on the front street^ than do the tenants 
pay for the rooms they occupy in the rear, tchere 
the air is not so good? While you may give more 
rent for your room and on that account have ac- 
cess to better air than the occupiants of rear 
rooms, you pay the extra rent because of the loca- 
tion of your room. You can go into the street 
any time and obtain all the fresh air you need or 
desire for nothing; but to occupy a particular 
room owned by your landlord, you must pay the 
landlord's price, because the supply of rooms is 
kept small by tax-dodging on the part of the own- 



20 THEi LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

ers of rooms and the ownersi of other valuable 
wealth, who frequently object to the supply of 
rooms becoming so plentiful as to enable such 
room-renters as you, to have rooms of your own, 
and, much less, whole houses. If the landlords 
and other lords were forced by law to pay the 
people two per cent annual tax or rent on the 
full value of their houses, lands, and on all their 
real and personal property, the land would have 
more houses on it, labor would generally employ 
itself, and you would not be forced to rent from 
any one ; but you could, if industrious and provi- 
dent, own land enough and have building mate- 
rial enough to erect a home for j^ourself. 

Has not the landlord a just right to charge me 
rent for the use of a room in the house he has 
huilt himself f He has. But the landlord must 
not be permitted to forget that the land on which 
the house stands is the common property of the 
whole people and that the wood, brick, or stone, 
out of which the house is constructed, came orig- 
inally from the earth, which is, admittedly, the 
common property of the whole people ; conse- 
quently, everything taken from the earth is also 
the common property of the whole people. The 
landlord has no more title, in justice, to the wood 
in the house than you, unless the landlord pays 
rent to the people or their governmental servant 
on the full value of the commonly owned land, 
wood, bricks, nails, sand, and everything else, 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 21 

entering into the composition of the house. If 
your landlord, all other lords, and valuable 
wealth-owners, were to pay to the people the lat- 
ter's rent on the full value of the people's prop- 
erty, you would not be long in obtaining posses- 
sion of a home of your own, in which you could 
have so many rooms supplied with fresh air and 
sunlight, that no one would be enabled to charge 
3^ou excetssive rent for a room, becauvse it has a 
window through which you can look and breathe 
directly into the front street. 

What has the greatest influence in determining 
the rent charged hy landlords for the use of their 
houses f The law of supply and demand as re- 
flected in the value of houses. If houses are few 
in proportion to the demand, the rent is high, if 
houses are many in proportion to the demand, the 
rent is low. Consequently, those houses which 
bring their owners high rents are high in value, 
generally; and those houses which bring their 
owners low rents are low in value, generally. 

Is it just that a landlord should charge a ten- 
ant any more for the use of a house than icliat is 
sufficient to compensate him for repairing and 
restoring it to its original condition? It is. ^yhy 
so? Value is the important institution or rela- 
tion through which the people express their de- 
sires for different articles. If the value of hats 
is A and the value of trousers is 2A and the value 
of shoes 3A, labor in the just state of society 



22 THE LABOEEES^ CATECHISM 

which I purpose to describe, will employ itself at 
producing shoes in preference to producing hats 
or trousers, until the supply of shoes is so increas- 
ed, that their value falls to 2 A. Then the major 
part of labor will fluctuate between work at pro- 
ducing shoes and work at producing trousers, 
until the supply of shoes and trousers is so in- 
creased, that the value of shoes and trousers will 
fall to A, the value of hats, after w^hich labor will 
fluctuate between producing hats, shoes and 
trousers at the value of A. 

Labor, Avhen not interfered with by tax dodg- 
ers and monej^-cornerers, naturally engages itself 
at making things which are high in value, in 
preference to making things which are low in 
value. If labor is given fair play by being per- 
mitted access to the land, machinery, etc., at near- 
ly as low a rent as that paid by the rich monopo- 
lizers and tax-dodgers to the state, labor would 
be generally working for itself and would not be 
engaged at ^slavish toil for tax-dodging capitalistsi, 
as is the case under our present social organiza- 
tion. 

Were the tax-dodging owners of land, houses, 
mortgages, machinery, railroads, oil-wells, coal 
mines, etc,, compelled to pay to the national gov- 
ernment a two per cent tax or rent on the full 
value of the various kinds of wealth which they 
are monopolizing, the tax-dodging owners of such 
wealth would abandon the greater quantity of the 



THE LABOREES' OATEOHISM 23 

valuable wealth, whicli thej now liold — ^soine of 
Y>-liich tliej^ are nsing and some of whicli they are 
not. Industrious laborers or workmen, would 
then take possession of the abandoned part (on 
which the rich could not pay their taxes or the 
people's rent) and employ themselyes. 

When the Avorking man is. given equal oppor- 
tunity in the competition for the use and posses- 
sion of the people's; valuable wealth, the intelli- 
gent and industrious Vv orkman will be the person 
Avho can pay into the public treasury, the highest 
rent for the use of property, and not the rich idler 
who generally collects from the workers much 
more than v/hat he pays in the form of taxes, 
keeping the excess for himself, a® i8 the case 
under our present government. 

But you have not ansioered responsively my 
question about the lancnord charging more for 
the use of a house than that ivliich loill suffice to 
restore the building and keep it in repair. I 
assert that the landlord should charge no more 
than ichat is necessary to repair and restore the 
house to its original condition f The wear, tear, 
repairs, etc., will be adjusted in the rent charged 
for the building, which rent is based on the value 
of the building. If the house has no value it can- 
not be rented and the landlord cannot get back 
even his expenses for the wear, tear, repairs, etc., 
much less any profit. 

But don^t you know that the great oiciio's of 



24 THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 

valuable ivealth in this country have substantial- 
ly annulled the laws of value , hy regulating the 
supply of useful things to suit their own pur- 
poses? I do. 

What can you do to prevent the rich owners of 
valuable wealth from regulating the supply of 
useful things? I sihall answer that question in a 
subsequent lesson. 

Have you any respect for the rights of prop- 
erty? I have the greatest respect for the rightei of 
property-owners and am most fastidious about 
their enforcement; but because a man originally 
came to this country ; ascended a high mountain ; 
claimed all the land within sight; wrote of it a 
description which he filed in a County Clerk' s 
office; or pTobably notified King George or his 
agent; I do think it is not just to permit him to 
hold such property in idleness or to u^e it only in 
part, without paying the people's taxes or rent 
on the full value of it, while his fellow-beings suf- 
fer for the want of such land and the things taken 
therefrom. 

Are you not an advocate of the single-tax-doc- 
trine? I am not. 

Why are you not? Because "single-taxers'' are 
men who believe that the full value of land, only, 
should be taxed; whereas I believe that the full 
value of everything taken from the land or made 
from the land should be taxed, as well as the 
value of the land it(self. The value of land, the 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 25 

value of machinery^ the value of houses^ the value 
of a ton of coal, the value of a dollar, and the 
value of every material article having value, is 
exactly the same thing, namely, ^^purchasing- 
power/' The single- tax theory would permit a 
man to take from the ground a large nugget of 
gold having much value, after paying taxes on 
the full value of the land containing the gold, 
without being required to pay taxes thereafter on 
the nugget's full value, leaving thereby for the 
people to tax the empty hole made by the removal 
of the nugget. 

LESSON IV. 

What Is the difference heticeen capital and 
vahtahle icealthf Substantially no difference — 
for the reason that all wealth having value may 
be employed as capital, and all capital (which 
is invariably wealth with value) may be u^ed as 
wealth; although the term ^^capitaP' can be cor- 
rectly applied only to that wealth which is ^^ac- 
cumulated purchasing-power'' in reserve. Is a 
house or an acre of soil^ capital? Thej' are if 
each is capable of conferring ^•purchasing-power'' 
on its owner. 

Is there any capital on this earth ichich has no 
value or '^purchasing-power?'^ There is not. 
Capital ceases to be capital the instant it will 
not confer ^^purchasing-power" on its owner. 

What is a capitalist? Any person who owns 



26 THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

anything which confers ^^purchasing power'' on 
its owner. 

Then a man iclio owns a lianuner and a saio is 
a capitalist f He is a small capitalist, if such 
tools confer ^^purchasing-poA^er'' on their owner. 
According to that, nearly every one owns some 
capital? Almost every one does. Very few 
people are without some capital^ but the big 
owners of capital have so much ^^purchaslng- 
powery'' that thej^ exercise an enormous advan- 
tage over small cai>italists. 

Is airy land J, ivater^ woody stone y or sunlight y 
ever capital? Whenever they have the relation 
expressed by value, they may become capital. 

Could capital he taxed so heavily as to destroy 
its value? It could, but it would thereby be 
rendered useless as capital; jet it could still be 
of use as wealth. 

What tcould he the result if capital were taxed 
so heavily as to destroy its value. No one Avould 
want it for the purpose for which capital is used. 
It would be abandoned and not used to assist 
laborers by increasing the supply of useful things 
and the luxuries which humanity desire. 

Is it just to excessively tax capital? It is not. 

Why not? Capital is always some useful thing 
Vidiich confers on its owner ^^purchasing-power'' 
and isi generally accumulated so that it can be 
used to greater advantage in commanding the 
services of toilers or the valuable property of 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 27 

other owners. It is generally employed to in- 
crease the supph^ of usefu] and ornamental things 
desired by humanity. To make it or its owners 
pay any more taxes or rent than is exacted from 
the owners of any other kind of wealth, having 
value and not used ais capital, is discriminatmg 
against the enterprising who are generally ^^capi- 
talists'* or the ovv^ners of capital. Because capital 
is capital^ is no sensible reason for taxing it any 
more than other valuable wealth which is not 
used as capital. Taxes should be imposed only 
on valuable wealth and capital, according to the 
"purchasing-power'' exercised by the owners, 
which shows, Vvdthout exception, hov/ badly 
tliose who have not the valuable wealth or capital, 
need it; and also the extent of the advantages en- 
joyed by the owners of capital or valuable wealth. 

Is the value of some things ever out of propor- 
tion to their utility? Very frequently it is. 

Can you give any examples. Yes. For in- 
stance : the value of homes have increased out of 
proportion to their utility. When this country 
was first settled in colonial times an ordinary 
man could obtain allodial title to a simple home 
by laboring four or five months; but todaj^ a great 
many ordinary men cannot each obtain allodial 
title to a simple home by laboring several years ; 
and in some cases a long life of labor has not pro- 
cured a simple home in this age of worry and 
nervous strain. A simple home isi today no more 



28 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

useful relatively than was a simple home when 
this country was first settled; but because the 
land, stone, timber, and other things, in this 
conntry, are more extensiyely monopolized and 
much scarcer in proportion to the population to- 
day than they were when this country was first 
settled, the demand for homes has increased enor- 
mously. Consequently, the value of a simple 
home, measured in average-day's-] abor, is to-day 
very much above the proportion which the value 
of homes .should bear to their utility. 

Give anofher example. Take Mr. ^^A" who 
li^ es one mile from a spring of good clear water 
which is free to any person who wants the water. 
If ^^B" carries a pail of water one mile to ^^A's" 
home and it takes ^^B'' one hour to do it, ^^B" is 
entitled to some compensation for his services 
equivalent, on the average, to Avhat any other 
average man could earn by working at something 
else for one hour. Now, if the average man work- 
ing ten hours a day, could earn two dollars at 
something else, ^^B" could justly charge "k^^ 
twenty cents for carrying the pail of water from 
the spring to "A's" home. In this case, the value 
of the twenty cents would be, on the average, 
about equivalent to the utility of the pail of water 
delivered to ^^A" at his door ; but if some so-called 
^^captain of industry'' or corporation (which, 
with very few exceptions, is a special privilege 
monopolizer) were to take possession of the 



THE LABOKERS' OATEiOHISM 29 

spring and compel ^^B" to pay one dollar for a 
pail of water, and ^^B'' after paying the dollar 
were to charge ^^A'' one dollar and twenty cents; 
in this transaction the value or ^^purchasing- 
power" of the pail of water, would be above and 
out of proportion to the utility to ^^A" of the 
Avater in the pail. 

HoiD are the vast majority of fortunes in this 
country made? 

By forcing the value or ^^purchasing-power" of 
valuable or not valuable wealth very much above 
that value which is commensurate with the util- 
ity of the wealth. 

How could the vast fortunes held in this coun- 
try and other countries he reduced? By the na- 
tional government imposing a two per cent an- 
nual tax rate or People's Kent on the full value 
of all valuable wealth whether great or small. 

What would he some of the effects of the im- 
position of a two per cent annual tax or rent-rate 
on the full value of all valuable ivealth or capital? 

It would greatly reduce the monopoly of valu- 
able wealth and materially prevent speculation. 
It would also force owners of used and unused 
valuable wealth, to employ their wealth to the 
best advantage and refrain from holding out of 
use any valuable wealth, for the purpose of com- 
pelling not-capitalistis or workingmen to give a 
large proportion of their labor or its products, at 



30 THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

some future time, for the permission to support 
themselves. 

Would you tax stolen icealth on its full value 
the same as honestly acquired icealthf 

I would. 

YVhy? Because the important part of stolen 
wealth isi not its owner's illegal title, but the 
^^pur chasing-power'' exercised by its illegal own- 
ers. The honestlj^ and dishonestly acquired valu- 
able Avealth v/ould alike finally revert to the State 
in fifty jT^ears, if a two per cent tax on its full 
value were collected annually from the honest 
and the dishonest owners:. If all wealth w^ere 
taxed on its full value, at a two per cent rate 
annually, (excepting money, and homesteads 
exempt to the amount of $2,000 ) valuable wealth 
Y^ould be so lovv' in value that very few things 
would be stolen. Crime invariably increases as 
food, clothing, and shelter, become higher in 
value or more difficult to get; and crime de- 
creases, when food, clothing, and shelter, become 
less valuable and therefore less difficult to get. 

WJtat other effects icould a tivo per cent tax 
on the full value of all icealth icith value {except- 
ing money and the |2,000 homvCsteads) have? 

It would reduce enormously the revenue of val- 
uable-Vv^ealth-monopolizers and remove a great 
part of the incentive to accumulate excessive 
quantities of valuable wealth, for the purpose of 
collecting present and future incomes therefrom. 



THE LABOEEKS' CATECHISM 31 

How could you make the owners of valuable 
wealth pay their taxes or piiblic rent on the full 
value of their property? By compelling, through 
the enactment of laws, all real and pergonal prop- 
erty-owners to record their property in an as- 
sembly-district recording-office, under the penalty 
of forfeiting the unrecorded property to the first 
legal citizen who discoyered the property unre- 
corded, and who then recorded it in his own (the 
discoverer's) name. 

Horn could you make the owners tell the truth 
about the value of their property? When every 
person owning real or personal property is re- 
quired by law to record it in an assembly-district- 
offlce under penalty of forfeiture to the private 
individual discovering the unrecorded property, 
there will be a reixIL puoperty list and a per- 
sonal PROPERTY LIST in each recording office. On 
each of these list^, the property-owners should 
be directed by law, to place a valuation on each 
recorded piece of property, or the price in ^^just 
money," at which they would be willing to sell 
it. At whatever price they mark their property 
for sale they should be required to pay taxes on 
that price or assessment, and be prepared to de- 
liver it to the first person who would offer them 
the recorded amount in money (cash) for it. 

V\^oiild not a law of that kind confiscate some 
person^ s property? It would when they are striv- 
ing to hold real or pergonal property at too low a 



32 THEi LABOREES' CATECHISM 

valuation for the purpose of tax-dodging. The 
government of the U. S. in order to force import- 
ers to tell the truth about the value of the goods 
they are importing, is obliged to confiscate all 
property valued, in the Bill of Entry by the im- 
porters, at less than fifty per cent of its true 
valuation. 

Eadical diseases require radical remedies. It 
is by the means of this "Ownership Record Law'' 
and this "Self Assessment Law" that I intend to 
prevent the rich owners of valuable wealth from 
regulating the supply of useful things to suit 
themselves. 

LESSON V. 

What is the difference heticeen Wealth and 
Utility? There is substantially no difference. 
Wealth is anything that is useful; consequently 
all things that are useful are Wealth. "Utility is 
that which satisfies a desire or supplies a want ;" 
Wealth satisfies desires and supplies wants. Sun- 
light, moonlight, land, coal, wood, bonds, stocks, 
money, water, mortgages, etc., are useful, and to 
that extent are wealth. But stocks, bonds, 
money, mortgages, etc., to be useful must have 
some value; whereas sunlight, moonlight, land, 
coal, wood, water, etc., can be useful without 
value. 

Hoiv is tvealth divided? Into two classesi — 
Wealth which has no value and Wealth w^hich 
has some value. 



THEf LABOEERS' CATECHISM 33 

Name some things ivMch are Wealth without 
value. Air, labor, sunliglit, moonlight, some kinds 
of land, some yarieties of water, etc., are ex- 
amples. Because they are useful they are 
Wealth; but if they cannot be monopolized; if 
nobody desires to monopolize them for the reason 
that they cannot be made scarce; or if they can- 
not confer ^*^purchasing power'' on their owners, 
they have not the relation which humanity recog- 
nizes by the term "value." 

Can you name any ivealth with valnef Yes. 
Some kinds of land, coal, wood, bonds, food, wa- 
ter, money, diamonds, mortgages, etc., v/hich are 
more or less scarce and difficult to get and which 
confer on their owners "purchasing-power,'' are 
a few examples of wealth with value. 

Would mankind he better or Voorse off, if all 
wealth on this earth loere deprived of all value? 
All wealth could not be deprived of all value. 
There will alwayiS be some land which will have 
some value, because there will always be a scarc- 
ity of some kinds of land as compared with other 
land. For example, there has never been enough 
land to supply everybody with a centrally located 
farm, or enough high land, located on a lake or 
river bank, to provide all, who desire such, with 
a lake or river site, either for agricultural or resi- 
dential purposes. There will always be some land 
more fertile than other land ; there will always be 
some scarcity of some kind of personal property ; 



34 THE LABOEEES' OATEiOHISM 

and asi long as a thing is scarce in proportion to 
the demand for it^ the thing will have, to some 
extent^ the relation known by the term value, and 
therefore all w^ealth cannot be deprived of all 
value. 

Would mankind he better off if all loealth loere 
deprived of 90 per cent of its value? They would. 

Is some value in so7ne kinds of loealth good 
for humanity f It is. 

Why so? Because the value of some useful 
things serves to incite enterprising people to 
make or produce more or many of such things. 
Labor, as a rule, does not make or produce useful 
things which have no value. The more v^Rju- 
able are certain things, the more is the tendency 
of labor to increase the supply of such things. 
Value also serves to justly determine wlio ought 
to occupy certain desirable pieces of land, by 
enabling the government (when it acts justly) to 
award such land to the person who w^ill pay to 
the government, rent or taxes on the highest valu- 
ation, for said land. 

Is permitting the person toho will pay tJce 
highest rent to the government for the use of real 
or personal property the best systetn under which 
real and personal property can he owned or man- 
aged and yet respect the subordinate — individual 
— rights of all the people? It is. 

y/hy so? Because renting out all the real and 
pe^rsonal property to the highest rent-payer, pre- 



THE LABOEEiRS' CATECHISM 35 

yente monopolizers from obtaining more than a 
just sliare of the people's valuable property. 
Monopolizers (who invariably object to paying 
full rent or taxes on the full value of their real 
and personal property to the people) could not 
then hold out of use. property for which other 
individuate (workers) without such property, are 
willing to pay a higher rent to the government, 
which is simply the agent of the whole people. 

Would tJiis plan of determining title to prop- 
erty he better than that founded on the favoritism 
of some monarch or on priority of application or 
discovery f It would. 

Why so? Because kings are too often governed 
by intoxicants and lewcl women, in selecting their 
favorites who, with few exceptions, are the least 
competent of all persons to employ real and per- 
sonal property to its greatest advantage. Pri- 
ority of application, discovery, or possession, is 
entitled to no consideration when the applicants 
are not willing to pay to the people equal rent 
or taxes for the property. But when several ap- 
plicants desire the same property and will only 
pay to the people the same rent for the use of it, 
then priority of application, discovery, or pos- 
session, should be resorted to, for the purpose 
of enabling the first applicant, discoverer, or 
possessor, to use the property. In all other cases, 
the legal citizen who will pay the highest annual 



36 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

rent to tile people for the property, whether it be 
real or personal, should have it. 

Cmi one man fix the value of any useful thing? 
He can not. 

Why not? Because the value of every useful 
thing is effected not only by what the owner de- 
mands for it, but by w^hat others are willing to 
give in exchange for it and innumerable other 
things. Therefore two or more persons must be 
present to contract before the relation, value, 
arises. 

Can one man justly fix the price of any useful 
article? Not for the people, when they desire to 
take possession of it for public use, by giving 
compenisation and proceeding according to due 
process of law. 

Can one man {the private oivner) justly fix the 
price for an individual? He can. 

Why so? Because the price of a thing can be 
made high or low, between one man and another, 
by CONTRACT or express agreement, without re- 
gard to the value of the article, as effected by the 
demand for or supply of the article. 

Vvhat is price? ^^Vv^hen two things are ex- 
changed, one for the other, each is the price of 
the other.'' 

Can you illustrate hy an example? Yes. Should 
I give my hat to a man in exchange for a dollar, 
the hat would be the price of the dollar and the 
dollar w^ould be the price of the hat. Should I 



THE LABORERS' OATECHISM 37 

give an apple to a man in exchange for a potato, 
the price of the apple would be the potato and 
the price of the potato would be the apple. The 
man with whom 1 have traded, bears the same 
relation to the potato that I do to the apple; 
therefore, ^^vhen two things are exchanged, each 
for the other, each is: the price of the other/' 

What mistake do many people make in their 
conception of the term Price? They believe that 
Price is something expressed in terms of money 
only. 

Is the transaction the same lohen commodity is 
exchanged for coMMomTY as when commodity is 
exchanged for money .^ It is. 

Why so? In the exchange of commodity for 
money it is generally an exchange of one valuable 
thing for another valuable thing; and in the ex- 
change of COMMODITY for COMMODITY it is also 

generally an exchange of one valuable thing for 
another valuable thing. 

Is Money essential to the making of all ex- 
changes in civilized nations? It is not. 

Why not? Because a commodity can be ex- 
changed for a commodity without any money, 
although the owners of the commodities gener- 
ally examine the value of the commodity to be 
exchanged, and compare it with the value of 
some kind of money, before making the exchange. 
This is the reason why the most important func- 
tion of money is to measure valued, notwithstand- 



38 THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

ing the contention of some economists that the 
most important function of money is ^'to facili- 
tate exchange." ^^Just money'' measures the 
value of not only the things exchanged, but also 
the value of many pieces of real property for 
assessment purposes which have not been ex- 
changed in years. Besides, in many transac- 
tions in which money is not used, the traders com- 
pare the value of the things to be exchanged with 
the value of money, before making the trade. 
Many exchanges are made without money, but 
few exchanges are made without comparing the 
value of the thing to be exchanged with the value 
of some kind of money. 

With ichat is the value of all real or personal 
property in this country generally compared? 
With the value of the money of the United States 
which is composed of dollars and fractions there- 
of. This is another reason why many persons 
erroneously conclude that Price cannot exist only 
in connection with money. 

Is Utility the chief feature in making ex- 
changes? It is not. Utility has much tO' do with 
inciting exchanges but the most impoTtant fea- 
ture of an exchange is the value of the things ex- 
changed, because each trader generally strives to 
give things with as little value as possible and 
to receive things which as much value as possible. 

Does the money of the United States or of any 
other nation measure the value of the articles ex- 



THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 39 

changed by merchants ivith any degree of justice 
or accuracy? It does not. 

JVliy not? Because U. S. dollars and the coins 
of other nations fluctuate very much in value or 
^^purchasing-power/' due to the change in the sup- 
ply of or demand for them. When many U. S. 
dollars per capita are in circulation^ their value 
or ^^purchasing-power'' is comparatively low ; but 
when few U. S. dollars per capita are in circula- 
tioUj their value is comparatively high. As the 
owners of U. S. dollars^ (including the U. S. gov- 
ernment) can hold out of circulation or freely 
pass into circulation U. S. money, the owners of 
dollars (including the government) can increase 
or decrease the supplj^ of dollars (to the extent 
that they ov/n them), and thereby cause the dol- 
lars to fluctuate in value or '^^purchasing-powT.r/' 
w^hich makes it impossible for U. S. dollars to 
accurately measure the value of other things, 
which themselves fluctuate in ^^purchasing 
power/' on account of the increase or decrease in 
the supply of or the demand for such other things. 
Because the owners of money, (including the 
government,) sometimes freely circulate their dol- 
lars and sometimes do not, the change in the cir- 
culation-supply of Uo g. dollars causes a variation 
in the quantity of value or ^^lourchasing-power" 
exercised by each money-owner, through his 
ownership of one or more U. S. dollars. This 
change in the supply of, or the demand for U. S. 



40 THE LABOKEES' CATECHISM 

dollars makes it impossible for a IT. S. dollar to 
possess an exact, fixed, or definite quantity of 
value, for any definite period of time ; therefore, 
U. S. dollars can not and do not, accurately, meas- 
ure the value of land, hats, potatoes, beef, or any 
other commodity, which is itself changing con- 
stantly in supply or demand, any more than a 
yardstick, which changes materially in length, 
can accurately measure distance. It is the same 
with all other nations' money. 

Have you any plan under ivhich a dollar that 
will not change materially in value can he issued? 
I have. 

What is it? It is a system of issuing money 
under which the supply of dollars is based on the 
needs of laborers and under which the dollars 
cannot be cornered by private individuals. But 
the present fiscal policy of the U. S. government 
is to increase or decrease the sui>ply of money, 
chiefly in accordance with the needs or demands 
of speculators in Wall street, and similar places. 

Will yon explain your system of issuing money 
icMch cannot he cornered? I v>n*ll in a subsequent 
lesson. 

LESSON VI. 

Why do you fix the people^s rent or piihlic tax 
on the value of real and personal property at 
^^two per cenf^ per annum? Because according to 
the best attainable statistics, this nation on an 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 41 

average, extending over a number of years, 
produces annually Iyvo per cent more wealth 
than what it consumes. This surplus ^^two per 
cent'' is what is left after the people have had 
their living, and it belongs to the whole people 
of this nation, for the reason that all the real and 
pergonal property in the United States (from 
which the products consumed and saved by the 
nation have been taken ) is the common property 
of the whole people of this nation and should be 
generally enjoyed by every United States citizen. 
This ^'two per cent'' annual surplus of the 
products can best be returned to its rightful 
owners (the people) by expending it in the estab- 
lishment of parks, hospitals, public highways, 
railroadsi, school-houses, etc., which all members 
of the nation can enjoy alike. 

Can you give any other reason for fixing the 
peopie^s rent or tax at 'Hivo per centiimf^ Yes. 
Taking annually ^^two per cent" of the full value 
of all valuable wealth from all private individual- 
owners and putting it into the nation's treasury 
would establish a cash-fund or store of products 
which could be used in employing all who needed 
employment, and thereby make up the deficiencies 
in the living of those unfortunate or improvident 
workers who were not obtaining their just share 
of the commonly owned real and personal prop- 
erty, on account of the shrewdness, enterprise, 
providence, parsimony and unscrupulousness of 



42 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

the class known as ^^large capitalists/' who he- 
cause of their ahility, can generally take extra 
good care of thenieelyes. Have you any otlier 
reason for fixing it at '^tico per cenf^ instead of 
one^ ten J fifteen^ or twenty, etc., per cent? I have. 
What is it? If this government were to take an- 
nually any higher rent, say four, six, eight, or ten 
per cent, on the full value of an indivicluai- 
owner's private property, the amount left to the 
individual vrould be so small that he would be- 
come discouraged and cease to produce more than 
that barelj^ required to support himself and de- 
pendents. Two-per-cent-rent annually, on the full 
value of all real and personal property, is so low 
a rate that the enterprising workers or capitalists 
would scarcely notice its subtraction from their 
wealth; whereas, any higiier rate would be ma- 
terially felt by the vrorker or capitalist. Less 
than two per cent annually, would not redis- 
tribute the accumulations of the ^^capitalist 
class" fast enough to prevent the large capitalists 
from exercising too great advantages over the 
improvident Vv orkers and small capitalists. 

Can you give any otlier reason for fixing the 
people^ s rent at two per cent? Yes. Give it, 

Moses, one of the greatest law-givers that ever 
lived, discovered that, in a period of about fifty 
years, the scheming and industrious ^^capitalist 
class'' would own almost everything desirable, if 
they were not restrained in some way or maiiner. 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 43 

Conesqiientlv, he (see Leviticus, chapter 25) de- 
creed that the year of the Jubilee should come 
once in every fifty years, when the ^^capitalist 
class'' would be required to return to the original 
owners the lands and homes they had taken from 
the original owners, by trading (legitimate con- 
tract or conscienceles.^ bargain) with the tliought- 
less or improvident not-capitalist class. Taking 
^"two per cent'' each year on the full value of all 
real and peTSonal property is much better than 
taking all the property lost by the not-capitalist 
class and which had been acquired by the capital- 
ist clasSj in each fiftieth year. 

Why not use Moses^ metJiod of disfrioiUion 
noio? Because the "two per cent" method of re- 
distributing the landa liouses, etc., acquired by 
the "capitalist class" is a material improvement 
on JJoses' cumbersome plan, which must have 
eaueed a great breaking up of the fortunes of the 
"capitalist class" in one single year; whereas the 
"two-per-cent-people's rent" could be taken an- 
nuallj^ from the enterprising and insatiable 
capitalists and tax-dodging millionaires, vrithout 
producing any jar to society, as it is now organ- 
ized. In a period of fifty years, about one hun- 
dred per cent of the full value of all real and 
personal property (witli the exception of the 
value of money and homestGadis) acquired by the 
wealth-ovv'-ners or capitrJist class, v/ould be taken 
from them by this "two per cent tax" and placed 



44 THE! LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

in the public treasury to supply a fund which 
would be returned to the disinherited^ in the form 
of employment at making things, to be enjoyed 
by the whole people. This would be a redistribu- 
tion of valuable wealth which would cause no dis- 
turbance to society. 

What other advantage iconld result fvGrn the 
coUection annuaUy of a ^'two per cent renf^ on 
the full value of all real and personal property , 
(tvith the exceptions heretofore mentioned) from 
the owners? 

It would prevent the despoiled v\^orkers from 
having recourse to violence in order to get enough 
real or personal property to live on. In all old 
nations now existing on this earthy the impover- 
ished class have been forced^ at some time or 
another, to shed blood, in order to avoid starva- 
tion at the very same time the rich tax dodgers 
were revelling in satiety. 

Yihy do you except from taxation and levy^ 
under a judgment for deht^ homesteads valued at 
|2,000 or less? 

Because no man or family should ever be per- 
mitted to become so poor that they are obliged to 
be a burden on society on account of their having 
no means of supporting themselves. When every 
family has a home which can not be taken away 
from it for the nonpayment of the people's ^^two 
per cent'' rent (taxes), or the non-payment of 
debts, every family will be, in this manner, guar- 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 45 

anteed tlie permanent posisession of enough 
capital to live, with the assistance of labor, in 
modest comfort. 

Would it he just to permit the head of a family 
to own a home equivalent in value to two thou- 
sand dollars and not pay his debts? It would. 
Why so? For the reason that all creditors would 
soon learn not to give to the head of any 
family, because he or she owned a two thou- 
sand dollar home. A creditor would not then ex- 
pect to sell a home under execution, in the event 
of the head'8 failure to pay his or her debts. With 
homes exempted in this manner, no sensible mer- 
chant would give credit based on the |2,000' home, 
or any part of it, to anyone. All credit given to a 
family head would, thereafter, be based on prop- 
erty owned by the head of the family in excess of 
the two thousand dollars. Homes above two 
thousand dollars in value, should pay public rent 
or taxes on the excess and be subject to levy un- 
der judgments, duly and regularly obtained, for 
the non-payment of debts. 

V/hy do you propose to exempt m.oney from 
taxation? Because money should be permitted to 
flow uninterruptedly through the channels of 
trade, without its owners fearing any loss. If 
money is taxed, however little, some of its owners 
v/ill hide or refrain from using it openly and 
freely in trade or manufacturing enterprises. 
Yet, claims or obligations, such as debts, promis- 



46 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

sory notes, bonds, mortgages, etc., held by cred- 
itors against debtors, and payable in money, 
should be taxed according to the value of the 
claimis or obligations; but no claim or obligation, 
such as a debt, note, bond, or mortgage, should be 
legal, unless recorded for taxation purposes, like 
any other personal property, in an assembly- 
district-recording office. 

Taxing the actual money in possession of an 
individual vrould have a tendency to keep it out 
of circulation and make it scarce to enterprising 
persons who desired to engage in the production 
or manufacture of valuable useful things, there- 
by increasing the value of money, which would 
be bad for debtors and workers. The government 
only should issue monej^, and private individual?, 
such as gold-owners and national bankers, should 
be forced to go out of the money-issuing-business. 
In order to avoid doing injustice to either the 
lender or borrower, or the buyer or seller, the 
value of a dollar should be, at all timeSj the 
same. 

Can you give still another reason for -fixing the 
^^people^s renf^ or puhlic tax at ^^tvco per centF^ 
I can. Give it. 

The annual death rate in the United States is 
about twenty persons in every one thousand or 
two per centum, when conditions are normal. If 
the property of those djdng annuallj^ v/ere taken 
by the national government each year, for the 



THE! LABOEEES' CATECHISM 47 

benefit of the whole nation, the U. S. government 
wonM acquire about two per cent of all the real 
and personal property in the United States each 
year, and, in a period of about fifty years, on the 
avenage would have possession of nearly all the 
real and personal property in the nation. Con- 
sequently, this government, provided it rented 
out all real and personal property to private 
individuals, at the ^^people's rent'' or public tax, 
(two per cent annually on the full value of all 
real and personal property) would be in the 
same position with regard to property, that it 
would be in, if it took, each year, all the real and 
personal property left by tho^e dying annually. 
Who discovered this natural laio of distrihu- 
tionf The late David Eeeves Smith. What did 
he call it? The ^^Death Eate Tax." 

LESSON VII. 

Why do you lay so much stress on the term 
Value? Because Value is simply the ^'^purchasing- 
power" exercised by the owners of valuable 
wealth and m the most important item or rela- 
tion to be found in the tariff, land, labor, money, 
capital and taxation questions. 

Why is Value important in considering the 
tariff question? Because all of our imports and 
exports are estimated according to their value, 
and the value of either imports) or exports shows 
how, relatively, important the imports or exports 



48 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

are to the American people. Wlien many things 
are exported from this country, the supply of 
such things left for home-consumption is de- 
creased, which has a tendency to increase the 
^^purchasing power'' or value exercised by the 
owners of the supply left in the home market. 
When many things; are imported, the supply of 
such things in thi<s country is increased, which has 
a tendency to decrease the ^^purchasing power'' 
or value exercised by the owners of such things 
in this country. As the majority of people in 
this country are interested in having the value of 
the things they need or desire to use, low, no tax 
or other obstacle should be permitted to interfere 
with those owners of imports who are increasing 
the home supply of useful things, and thereby 
decreasing the supply's value, to home-con- 
sumers. But when an exporter is taking useful 
things away from this country and thereby de- 
creasing the supply in the United States and as 
a result increasing the value of useful things to 
home consumers, he should be prevented as much 
as possible by making him pay an export tax of 
twenty per cent on the full value of everything he 
exports. 

But isn/t a tax upon exports prohibited by the 
Federal Constitutioivf Yes. Article 1, section 9, 
paragraph 5, of the Federal Constitution forbids 
a tax on exports. But said paragraph is an in- 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 49 

sane prohibition and should be legally stricken 
from the Constitution. 

Would not a tax upon exports decrease the 
quantity of things bought from its hy foreigners 
and consequently decrease the employment given 
our American workers? It would. But work is 
not what our American mechanics or laborers 
want: it is the things they can procure by the 
means of the ^^punchasing power-' they exercise 
through the receipt of their wages, whether in 
money or kind. What our laborers truly want is 
good food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, ornament, 
etc., low in value. Laborers can always go^t all 
the work they w^ant by offering to toil for little 
or nothing, and if they would always so offer, 
they would never be without work during any 
season. If American workmen, including the 
soil-tiller, each pToduced one-half as much ais they 
are now producing with the assistance of labor- 
saving-machinery (and received nine-tenths of 
their products as wages) they would be much 
better off than they now are; notwithstanding 
the great quantity of their time spent at toiling, 
while receiving for said toil less than one-fourth 
of the value of their labor-products, as wages. 

Why do the old political parties deliherately 
force upon the people discussions of the tariff 
question without mentioning the importance of 
the term Value? Because they fear that a dis- 
cussion of Value as related to the Tariff Question 



50 THE LiABOREES' CATECHISM 

would precipitate a discussion of Value as bear- 
ing on the Land, Labor, Money, Capital, and Tax- 
ation Questions. Should the people once learn 
that the most important element in the examina- 
tion and analysis of these questions is Value, they 
would not be long in diiscovering that value is 
^^purchasing power'' and that it is the ^^purchas- 
ing power'' exercised by the comparatively few 
owners of valuable wealth in this country that is 
effecting our American people (particularly the 
workers) the greatest injury; and not the quan- 
tity of time spent by foreign workmen in making 
useful things to be consumed by or sold to Ameri- 
cans. JVho are the classes that generally own the 
vast volume of our exports now being sent 
abroad? The same class that generally ow^n our 
land, our coal-mines, oil-wells, railroads, ma- 
chinery, banking establishments, etc. The sur- 
plus of exports over imports now going abroad, 
annually, is not owned by American workmen. 
Do you believe that taking off all the tax on 
imports or putting the taw on them higher^ will 
relieve our American people from the oppression 
of the trusts f It will not. Why not? Because 
with a high tax or no tax, on either our imports 
or exports., the owners of the great quantities of 
valuable wealth in this country, will still extort 
from the laborer (unless taxed annually two per 
cent on the full value of their valuable wealth) 
the major part of his products, in the name of 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 51 

Rent for land or other property, Freight or Pas- 
senger Charges for the u^se of railroads, Rent or 
Interest for the use of money controlled by the 
bankers, extortionate prices for the necessities of 
life, etc. 

Hoio tvonld you have tJie value of our imports 
and ewports justly measured? By a money based 
on an American unit of labor and not on any yel- 
low metal owned and controlled by the Poth- 
schilds and their kind. Would you not as the 
result of such a policy abandon the so-called 
^^stahle gold standardf^ I would. But the so- 
called ^^stable gold standard'' is anything but 
stable. Would not such an abandonment 'be in- 
jurious to AmeHcan ivorkingmenf It would not. 
Why not? Because the gold standard is con- 
trolled chiefly by the Bank of England and the 
Bank of England is controlled chiefly hj the 
Pothschilds. This control enables foreigners to 
juggle with the value of our imports and exports 
and thereby do us immeasurable injustice, which 
the superficial thinker can not see. Whereas, if 
we had a ^^standard of value'' based upon a unit 
of American labor, we would be enabled to meas- 
ure the value of all our imports and exporrs by 
our ^own ^^standard of value,"' and in this way 
discover that we are being exploited by great 
foreign capitalists, as well as by great domestic 
capitalists. 

When loill you explain the money system under 



52 THE LABOREES' CATECHISM 

ichich Americans can accurately measure the 
value of their imports and exj^orts and also the 
value of all domestic real and personal property^ 
for the purpose of just taxation f 

In a subsequent chapter. As soon as I have 
your mind in proper shape for a correct concep- 
tion of the proposed Just Money, I shall explain 
it. I am leading up to it as fast as possible. 

Wliat do ice generally receive in exchange for 
the great quantities of corn, wheat, heef, pork, 
cotton, etc, ice send abroad f The rich tax-dodg- 
ing-yaluable-wealth-owners of this country, gen- 
erally receive in exchange for our exports, expen- 
sive jewelry, ostentatious automobiles, precious 
stones, rare paintings, and letters of credit which 
are chiefly u«sed by our American millionaires, 
tax-dodgerSj etc., to supply themselves and fami- 
lies, when abroad, with entertainment, riotous 
living, and articles of ornament. 

What else is done with our exports? They are 
used to satisfy the demands by foreigners; for 
earnings or profits on foreign capital invested in 
this country, or to pay rents on the real and per- 
sonal property owned in the United States by 
foreigners. 

Is this investment of foreign capital in this 
country a henefii to our workers? Generally, it is 
not. Why not? Because the foreign capitalist 
does not invest any capital (which is ^^purchas- 
ing-power" in reserve) in this country, unless the 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 53 

probability is, that he will take out of thisi coun- 
try a good deal more ^^purcliasing-power" than 
what he has put in. When a foreign capitalist 
invests one ounce of gold in this country, he gen- 
erally takes back many ounces of gold or their 
equivalent, in ^^purchasing-power" before the 
elapse of many years:. If our government would 
properly and justly regulate the supply of money, 
we would never be required to go in debt for any 
foreign capital; but would always have all the 
American owned capital or ^^purchasing-power'' 
we needed. 

What famous statesman and philosopher who 
lived about six hundred years before Christy 
appreciated the necessity of making it difficult to 
ewport his nation^ s products^, in order to promote 
the general loelfare of his people? Solon, the 
learned Athenian. What did he do with regard 
to taking useful things out of his country? In 
^Tlutarch's Lives" it is written: ^^Of all the 
products of the earth, he (Solon) allowed none 
to be sold to strangers, but oil : and whoever pre- 
sunied to export anything else the Archon was 
solemnly to declare him accursed or to pay him- 
self a hundred Drachmas into the public treas- 
ury." 

LESSON VIII. 

What class in the United States in the last 
analysis pays all the taxes? The workers who 



54 THE) LABOEEES' CATEiCHISM 

make or produce all the useful things used or 
enjoyed by all the classes. 

How do you prove your assertion? Hj the fol- 
lowing example : if we could place all the useful 
things made by the workers throughout the 
United States, during a single year, in one cen- 
trally located pile^ and in charge of Uncle Sam, 
the colossal heap would disappear in quantities, 
which would be remoyed from the pile, by ban- 
kers., offlce-holders, railroad-kings, brokers, law- 
yers, mine-owners, real or personal property 
owners, and other similar classes, who in many 
instances, after providing extrayagantly for 
themselves, w^ould leave only a small remainder 
of the pile to be consumed by the workers; and if 
there were enough left to sustain the workers, 
well and good ; if not, the workers unable to get 
their just 'share of the pile, would be forced to 
beg, steal or starve. 

But icould not the classes you mention and loJio 
ohtained first chance to supply themselves^ pay 
Uncle Sam for each thing taken? True. They 
would hand Uncle Sam valuable orders on the 
pile called ^^money," but this money would be 
useless, if it did not confer value, which is ^^pur- 
chasing power,'' on its o^niers. 

How did these classes, supplying themselves 
from the pile, oMain the orders or money which 
enabled them to purchase from Uncle Sam the 
things in the pile tohich they desired? Some 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 55 

earned them^ a few legally stole them, and a part 
of the ^^banking class'' manufactured some of 
them. Vfhat has this to do loith pour assertion^ 
that the icorkers pay all taxes? It shows that all 
the useful articles received and enjoyed by the 
"leisure or non-producing-class" must be sup- 
plied by the workers, consequently, any money 
collected by the tax-gatherer or paid to stock- 
owners, etc., in the form of diyidends, etc., m use- 
less, unless it is an order enabling the purchase 
of some of the useful and luxurious articles, pro- 
duced by the workers. On what does the most 
important part of the value of these orders de- 
pend? On the "law-making-power,'' which is gen- 
erally operated in the interest of every class, ex- 
cept the working class. 

Is it a matter of importance to the workers 
what things are taxed when the workers ultimate- 
ly pay all the taxes? It is. Why so? Because 
direct taxes which are apportioned among states 
or other divisions according to the number of 
persons, as provided by the Federal Constitution, 
(article 1, section 9, paragraph 4) do not fall 
upon the tax-dodger with as much justice as when 
they are apportioned among the states or other 
divisions, according to the value of the property 
held and owned in the states or other divisions. 
Taxes that fall on the owners of real and personal 
pToperty according to value, fall with less weight 



56 THE LABOEEES' OATECHISM 

on the enterprising, and more weight on the 
monopolizing. 

Are indirect taxes favorable to loorkers? They 
are not. lYhj/ not? Because indirect taxation is 
a complicated method of taxing the owners of 
property, and falls most heavily on the workers, 
y>^ho are the most numerous body of consumers. 
Direct taxation, according to the yalue of the 
property held by all owners, is the only just sys- 
tem of taxation that can be employed by a demo- 
cratic form of government. 

Eoto do icorkers suffer most hy iinjust taxa- 
tion? By being unable to earn and accumulate 
but little valuable wealth on which to pay directly 
any kind of taxes. 

Is labor a commodity? I should not so classify 
it. Why not? Because labor is a force of the 
mind and body and should not be classified with 
inanimate things. 

Is labor valuable? It is not. Why not? For 
the reason that if labor were valuable, it could be 
used in the pawn-shop as an asset on which to 
borrow money or some other valuable thing. Does 
labor become valuable ichen it finds a market? It 
does not. It is only when a workman has ren- 
dered some service or added value to some special 
tiling, by making the thing more useful or desir- 
able, that he receives his wages ot ^^purchasing- 
poy^er." The laborer must generally annex value 
to the thing he is working on, before he receives 



THE LABOKEES' CATECHISM 57 

back any value or ^^purcliasing-power'' in the 
form of money or wages; and he almost invari- 
ably receives less in value than the quantity of 
value he has added to the thing he has been work- 
ing on. 

Has labor valuer loJien the laborer is a slave? 
The laborer is valuable, when treated asi a slave, 
to his owner ; but as slavery is an unnatural con- 
dition, it should not be tolerated in any just state 
of society. Labor in itself is and never can be 
valuable where each man has the right to use 
himself, limited only by the legal rights of others. 

Is labor wealth? It is. 

Why so? Because it can be used or utilized. 

What quality can he truthfully attributed to 
labor? Utility or usefulness. 

What is the logical definition of labor? ^^Labor 
is any legal effort to obtain an income.^' 

Why is the word^ ^'legaV^ inserted in the defini- 
tion of labor? To signify that no labor should be 
permitted of which the people have not duly and 
regularly approved. 

What do you mean by income? That the thing 
or things given to labor for its services, will en- 
able the laborer to exercise ^^purchasing-power" 
and thereby satisfy his wants or gratify his de- 
sires. Income is an abbreviation of the phrase 
^^incoming-purchasing-power." 

Would not a robber engaged in stealing things 
be engaged in getting an income under your 



58 THEi LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

definitiofif He would not^ if robbery were pro- 
nounced illegal by the people. 

Is not your definition too extensive? It is not. 
Vihy not? Because every citizen should be per- 
mitted to engage in rendering any legal service he 
desires to the people^ and the people should be 
permitted to estimate the service rendered, by the 
quantity of patronage or ^^purchasing-power" 
they are willing to give the worker in exchange 
for the service. The people by this means, can 
justly express their desire or need for actors, doc- 
tors, lawyers, ministers, carpenters, shoemakers, 
draymen, merchants, etc., by the ^^purchasing- 
power'' or income received by these classes from 
whoever patronizes such laborers and in this man- 
ner, avoid all unjust discrimination against any 
legal laborer; leaving as a result the workfield, 
freely open, to all desiring to serve the people. 
Is the possession of great quantities of valuable 
icealth creditable to its oicners in this one hun- 
dred and thirty-seventh yea^r of the American Re- 
public's existence? It is not generally. Why not? 
Because the great majority of the "owners of 
valuable wealth in this country are t^x dodgers, 
money-cornerers, or vote buyers. 

Hov: vcould the valuable ivealth of this country 
he distributed if tax-dodging:, money-cornering^ 
and vote-huying tvere stopped? It would gener- 
ally be in the possession of intelligent and in- 
dustrious workmen or laborers. Why so? Be- 



THE LABOEERS' CATEiCHISM 59 

cause the intelligent and industrious laborer, 
under a just order of society, would be the person 
who could pay the ^^two per cent people's rent'' 
on the highest valuation of the greatest quantity 
of the people's valuable wealth. 

What does an American citizen^ s lack of val- 
uable wealth generally prove? In some cases it 
proves that he is indolent^ shiftless, or extrava- 
gant; but in the majority of cases, in our present 
state of society, under which unscrupulous and 
enterprising persons accumulate enormous for- 
tunes, it shows that the poor have been less hog- 
gish and wicked and more generous than the 
rich. 

What is icages? A laborer's wages is the ^^pur- 
chasing power" he exercises as the result of his 
ow^nership of the things he receives for his serv- 
ices, whether working for himself or another. 
How many kinds of voages are there? Two. Real 
wages and legaJ wages. Vvhat are real ivages? A 
laborer'is real wages is that quantity of utility or 
usefulness taken from the products of his labor, 
which he himself enjoys or consumes. 

Can yon^ illustrate hy example? Yes. If a 
laborer Taises 100 bushels of wiieat on some land 
and pays four bushels or their equivalent in value, 
to the government as a satisfaction of the People's 
Annual Rent and then eats or consumes the re- 
maining 96 bushels, the part that he has eaten or 



60 THE LABOEEKS' CATECHISM 

consumed is his Eeal Wages^ viz., the 96 bushels 
of wheat. 

What are Legal Wages? A laborer's Legal 
Wages is that part of the ^^purchasing-power'' re- 
ceived as a reward for his serviceiSj which he has 
left, after he has used or devoured a part in con- 
sumption. 

Can you illustrate hif an example? Yes. If a 
workman raises 100 bushels of wheat and gives 
four bushels to the government in satisfaction of 
the People's Eent and eats fifty bushels, he has 
46 bushels left. This forty-six bushels is his Le- 
gal Wages and he has a right to consume, (but 
not destroy) sell, or assign the forty-six bushels 
to another for something else, which he may wish 
to use, consume, or enjoy. Who oions the Legal 
Wages? The laborer who made o'r produced them, 
subject to the higher ownership of the people, who 
have the right to take the forty-six bushels, at any 
time, upon compensating the laborer for his serv- 
ices in producing the forty-six bushels, after giv- 
ing him his day in court, reasonable compensation 
for the property taken, and proceeding according 
to due process of law to establish the value of the 
forty -six bushels of wheat. // a tcorker or lahorer 
raising 100 bushels of ivheat annually on a piece 
of landy were required to give to a private in- 
dividual 60 bushels in the form of rent, ivhat 
should the foi^ty bushels left be called? Wages. 
Supposing the laborer in this case ate 10 bushels 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 61 

of his forty bushels^ and kept the remaining 30 
htishels of his forty bushels^ lohat tvould you call 
each? 

The ten busihete eaten would be the laborer's 
Eeal Wages^ and the thirty bushels saved, would 
be his Legal Wages. Such a laborer would be a 
CAPITALIST to the extent that the ownership 
of the 30 bushels conferred on him ^^purchasing- 
power/' 

What do Legal Wages in the possession of a 
laborer slioiOy provided he has paid the PeopWs 
Rent or tico per cent taw annually^, on the full 
value of his property ^ including his Legal Wages? 
That the laborer has produced some useful thing 
or things out of the people's property, the desire 
for which on the part of the people, is expressed 
in the value of the thing or thingSi made by the 
laborer. Legal Wages in the possession of a 
laborer, evinces that the people have no just right 
to take from the laborer his Legal Wages without 
paying him for the labor expended in producing 
the Legal Wages, as determined by the value of 
the things produced. Is a doctor ^ lawyer , or min- 
ister ^ a laborer? Yes; whenever he is engaged in 
a legal effort to obtain an income. 

LESSON IX. 

What is money? I will not undertake to define 
money. I can only at present refer j^ou to sam- 
plesi of it. A French franc, an Eliglish sovereign. 



62 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

a German tlialer, a Russian ruble, an xlmerican 
dollar, a SpanisU peseta, etc., are each species; of 
money. I shall however attempt to define and 
explain what a United States dollar ought to be 
in order to effect no injustice to any party to a 
contract concerning dollars, and to make it im- 
possible for any private individual, owning either 
a large or small sum of money, to restrict in any 
manner, trading, producing, or manufacturing, 
throughout the United States, by ^^cornering- ' the 
supply of money. 

Of what material should a United States dollar 
he composed? It should be composed of some con- 
venient and abundant material having little 
value, and it should not be liable to be scarce or 
to be needed badlj^, at any time, in the arts or 
trades. Why sof For the reason that when the 
material out of which dollars are made, is needed 
badly to make some other useful article, the 
manufacturers of such articles are prone to melt 
up or macerate said dollars in order to obtain 
the material composing them, for use in their art 
or trade. For instance : if dollars -are made out 
of copper and the supply of copper out of which 
to make copper-valves is scarce, manufacturers 
of copper-valves will be disposed to convert the 
copper dollars into copper-valves, and thereby 
make the remaining copper dollars in circulation 
less in supply, and so great in value, that the 
prices of commodities will generally fall, v/hen 



THE LABOEEES' OATEOHISM 63 

measured by said dollars; even thougli the con- 
version of the copper dollars into copper valves 
is very expensive to said manufacturers. 

Is this true of other metals or materialj such 
as iron^ nickel^ paper ^ gold, silver^ etc. ? It is, and 
consequently no gold, copper or paper dollar 
should have as much gold, copper or paper in its 
composition as will equal the quantity of gold, 
copper or paper that can be bought in the open 
market, far a legally coined dollar. 

According to your reasoning a gold dollar con- 
taining only one legal cenVs loorth of gold, as sold 
hy the goldsmith^ would make a better and more 
serviceable dollar than a gold dollar composed of 
one hundred legal cents^ loorth of gold? It would, 
provided the dollar containing the one cent's 
worth of gold were not too small for convenient 
handling. Then you must believe that a dollar 
composed of paper ivill make the best dollar^ on 
the theory that the quantity of paper required to 
compose a paper dollar would never be employed 
to make up any deficiency in the supply of paper 
used by those manufacturers ivho are making 
books, tubs, pails,, or any other article out of 
paper f I do, provided that the paper dollars are 
sufficiently protected from counterfeiting, and 
that their supply is so regulated, that the owners 
of paper dollars are not enabled to hamper trade 
and enterprise, by increasing the supply of paper 
dollars when said owners of paper dollars had 



64 THE; LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

something to sell, or decreasing the supply when 
eaid owners desire to purchase something, and in 
this manner get something for little or nothing. 

Gould the present exchanges and enterprises of 
society he conducted withottt government issued 
dollars? They could (but Tather awliwardly) if 
everybody in society kept his or her promise and 
everybody believed in everybody else's promise. 

How could exchanges he conducted tvithout 
government issued dollars f By each competent 
contmetor issuing a piece of paper signed by 
himself, whieh stated the number of days he 
would work for the bearer or legal owner of the 
piece of ^^signed paper," 

But if private individttals ivere to issue such 
pieces of paper^ would there not he much confu- 
sion and dissatisfaction in society? There would. 

Why so? Because, when the signers of said 
pieces of paper died or disappeared, there would 
be no one to fulfill the promises; and some of the 
promissors might dishonestly issue more of the 
"promises of days' work" written on paper, than 
those which they could or would be willing to per- 
form. This would hstve a tendency to constantly 
decrease the value of such "promises on paper," 
and this decrease in value would' discourage many 
persons in their efforts to possess and save such 
"p'romises of day's work," or to engage in various 
useful enterprises with their assistance. 

Should the scarcity of dollars ever he per- 



THE LABOREES' OATEOHISM 65 

mitted to limit industrial enterprises of any Idnd? 
They should not. 

Why not? Because new yaluable dollars can be 
issued by a truly republican government as long 
as they are necessary^ provided they are composed 
of paper and the supply of the dollars; m regulated 
by an intelligent public servant of the people, in 
accordance with the ^^labor unit" hereinafter ex- 
plained. 

Is not the value of such an abundant material 
as paper too loio to ansiver the purpose of a dollar 
icMch can perform all the functions of money f It 
is not. 

Why not? Because the lower the value of a 
convenient material out of which dollars are 
made, the less disposed will men, who are manu- 
facturing larticles of utility out of that con- 
venient material or paper, be to use said con- 
venient material or paper dollars for other than 
money purposes, in order to obtain the small 
quantity of eonvenient material or paper used in 
the composition of said doliars. 

Can you illustrate by an example? Yes. If 
some manufaicturer were making boxes, books, or 
pails, out of paper, and it cost the U. S. govern- 
ment one mill to buy the paper composing a IT. 
S. paper dollar, and if about 99 per cent of the 
value of the paper dollar were due to the enact- 
ment of law, no paper box, book, or pail manu- 
facturer could afford to take the one milFs worth 



66 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

of paper composing the paper dollar and convert 
it into paper boxes, books, or pails, for the reason 
that the paper boxes, books or pails would not sell 
for enough money to compensate the manufac- 
turer for his loss: of about 99 per cent of the value 
in the dollar due to the law, in order to gain a 
quantity of paper which could be bought in the 
paper-market for one-tenth of a cent. 

Is the same reasoning true of gold? It is. 

W% so? Because if a gold dollar were com- 
posed of a quantity of gold which could be pur- 
chased in an uncoined state in the open market 
for one legal copper cent and about 99 per cent 
of the value of euch a gold dollar depended on the 
^^legal tender power'' invested in said gold dollar 
by law, no goldsmith or other manufacturer 
would melt up such a gold dollar, in order to ob- 
tain approximate! 3^ one- fourth of a grain of gold; 
but he would, in preference, buy a quantity of 
uncoined gold in the open gold-market with a 
coined gold dollar or some other legal dollar, 
which quantity of gold would excel greatly, in 
value and in quantity, the ( about one- fourth of a 
grain of gold) "quantity of gold contained in the 
coined gold dollar. 

Why do you knoio that a convenient material 
having very little value ansivers the purpose of 
^^dollar materiaV^ better than any other material, 
high in value and comprising very little hulk? 
For the reason that if any U. S. dollar contains 



THEi LABOREEiS' CATECHISM 67 

as much or nearly as mucli of any metal or other 
material as can be purchased in the open market 
for a dollar, whenever manufacturers O'r money- 
speculators, abroad or at home, needed the ma- 
terial used in the composition of the TJ. S. dol- 
lar, the foreign or domestic manufacturers or 
speculators would melt up or macerate said U. S. 
dollars for the purpose of converting the material 
composing them, into some article, for which the 
speculators or manufacturers require the ma- 
terial, every time the material used in the compo- 
sition of said dollar becomes sufficiently scarce to 
make its value high enough to induce the melting 
up or maceration of said U. S. dollars. With a 
cent's worth, or less, of any convenient material 
made into a dollar by law, the value of that ma- 
terial would have to go very high, before any 
foreign or domestic manufacturer or speculator 
could afford to destroy 99 per cent of the ^^pur- 
chasing power'' or value in the dollar, due to the 
fiat of the government or the people, in order to 
obtain one cent's worth of said material. Con- 
sequently the less the value of any material 
used in the composition of a dollar the more 
probable is said dollar to be kept at home in this 
nation for the purpose of transtacting American 
domestic business; thereby tending to keep the 
dollar supply in the home-country sufficiently 
large to meet all demands, with much less 
liability to fluctuation in value or ^^purchasing- 



68 THEl LABORERS' OATEiOHISM 

power/' than would be the case were the material 
composing the U. S. dollar equal in value to the 
quantity of the same material, which could be 
bought in the open market with a legal dollar. 

Do not the advocates of the ^^gold standard^^ 
affirm that the only dollar which is an ^^honest 
dollar'' is one tvhich is composed of a hundred 
cents^ worth of gold? They do; but they do not 
know what they are talking about, when they 
make such an assertion, or else they are deliberate 
fabricators. 

Why do they not? Because when they talk 
about ^^one hundred cents' worth" they must have 
reference to one hundred ^^gold cents" and as no 
one ever saw^ a gold cent, they certainly do not 
talk rationally when they discuss a cent which 
no one has ever seen. 

Might they not refer to United States cents 
composed of 95 per cent copper and 5 per cent tin 
and zinc? If they did they would still be irra- 
tional, because the material out of which one 
hundred copper-tin-and-zinc cents is made by the 
TJ. S. government, can generally be purchased as 
bullion in the open market or junkshop for less 
than ten legal copper-tin-and-zinc IT. S. cents. 

Have you any other reason for asserting that 
paper is the best material out of ichich this gov- 
ernment can make a legal C/. S. dollar? I have. 
What is it? If this government were to make its 
dollars exclusively out of paper, it would be very 



THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 69 

difficult, in fact impossible, for any private indi- 
vidual or clique of individuals to ^^corner'^ the 
paper-supply on the government with the same 
ease that gold, silver, copper, or any other metal, 
can be cornered. Paper can be made out of so 
many abundant materials that it can never be 
eornered by private individuals so effectually as 
to interfere with the supply of paper which the 
government might want for money-making pur- 
poses. 

What effect has the ^^cornering/^ on a govern- 
ment^ of the material out of which its dollars are 
made? It prevents the government from obtain- 
ing sufficient of the material with which to in- 
crease the supply of dollars, in order to meet an 
increased demand for money, and therefore 
makes it impossible for the government to keep 
its dollars at an unvarying quantity of value. 

How should a government regulate the supply 
of its dollars f It should so issue its dollars that 
when the demand for dollars is great, the supply 
of dollars would be great, and when the demand 
for dollars is small, the supply of dollars would 
be small. It should also keep the number of dol- 
lars in circulation at such an amount that the 
value of dollars would always be substantiallj^ the 
same, whether the demand for them was great or 
small; so that it would at all times require the 
same average quantity of labor to obtain a 
dollar. 



70 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

Would not dollars naturally go up in value^ if 
the demand for them ivere increased f Not if the 
supply of dollars was increased fast enough to 
meet the demand. 

What other purpose should a government^ issu- 
ing dollars J have in view? It should so issue its 
dollars and so withdraw them from circulation, 
that any competent laborer with valuable assets, 
or who is willing to work, would never be obliged 
to abandon any industrial enterprise which 
would be a benefit to society, on account of his 
inability to obtain dollars. 

What other policy should a government strive 
to pursue with regard to issuing money or dol- 
lars? It should aim to have its dollars always 
come out through the hands of manual laborers 
who had rendered a service to the government by 
performing manual work, except when the gov- 
ernment calls in whatever bonds it desires, in 
order to replace them with dollars, when at- 
tempting to prevent a ^^money comer.'' 

Should a republican form of government at any 
time issue any kind of bonds? Yes. It should 
issue bonds of small denominations paying two 
per cent annual interest, and in whatever amount 
the people wanted them. 

For what reason? To provide the people with 
a safe investment into which to place their sav- 
ings and at the same time to enable the govern- 
ment to rapidly increase the supply of dollars in 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 71 

circulation by calling in bonds and paying them 
off AT ANY TIME in Order to counteract any ^^cor- 
ner'' in money that may be attempted on the part 
of ^^financial sharpisi/' who desire to increase the 
value of dollars circulating among the people 
and thereby reduce generally the prices of com- 
modities. 

Does such a government as the United States 
ever require credit from any private individual f 
It doesi not. 

Why not? Beause the government of the 
United States, or any other just government, 
founded on the consent of the people, never needs 
to borrow from private individuals the dollars 
which the government itself has already made or 
can make. Whatever kind of a dollar a just 
republic issues (provided the supply is properly 
regulated), however cheap the material out of 
which the dollars are made, the instant the gov- 
ernment makes said dollars full-legal-tender (that 
is, decrees that the dollar shall perform all the 
functions possible to any other legal coin or 
dollar, and that the dollar shall be received in 
payment of taxes and all other obligations to 
the government) that instant, the government 
will be independent of all private individuals 
owning money; and it will not be required to go 
to any private individual and borrow the iden- 
tical dollars which the government itself at some 



72 THE LABOEERS^ CATECHISM 

former time iias isisuedy or to wliich it has annexed 
it^ stamp. 

Which is the more poicerful and permanent : a 
private individual or a just government? The 
just government when it is founded on the con- 
sent of the people. 

Why then does a great government like the 
United States ask credit {which is time in ivhich 
to return to the owner some useful or valuable 
thing ^ tvhich has been horroiced by the bailor or 
borroicer^ either icith or ivithout compensation 
for the use of tJie thing borrowed) from any pri- 
vate individual either for dollars or anything 
else? Because it serves the purposes of the vote- 
buyingj tax-dodging and money-cornering classes, 
to instil in the minds of the people, with the 
assistance of some pupils, some schools and 
many colleges, newspapers and magazines, the 
false and erroneous idea, that a just and power- 
ful government, resting on the will of the people, 
can not issue a valuable dollar, unless said dollar 
at some time or another is redeemed with the 
gold or silver owned by i^rivate individuals. 

Is this true? It is not true. 

Why is it not true? For the reason that a gov- 
ernment founded on the consent of the people and 
truly representing their wishes, has the legal and 
natural right to take for public use, any piece of 
private property, either real or personal, that it 
requires at any time, provided the owner of the 



THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 73 

priyate property is justly compensated therefor 
by the receipt of legal dollars issued in payment 
by the goyernment; and which are equiyalent in 
yalue to the yalue of the property taken. 

On what is this just and natural principle 
founded? On the theory that the welfare of the 
people isi of greater importance than the welfare 
of any priyate indiyidual or clique of indiyiduals, 
when regularly and duly judged by the people. 

Is this principle founded on any other theory? 
Yes. On the theory that the highest ownership 
of all real and personal property is in the wiiole 
people of a nation, when dealing with the prop- 
erty within the domain of said nation. 

HoiD would a government like the United States 
redeem its dollars withoiU tising any kind of pri- 
vate individuaVs property? By simply receiying 
its dollars in payment of the people's two per 
cent rent or annual tax. The knowledge on the 
part of the people that the United States goyern- 
ment will receiye any particular material or any 
particlar form of material, in payment of its 
taxes or People's Eent, creates a demand for that 
material. As eyery thing scarce and for which 
there is a demand, is alv/ays yaluable and has 
"purchasing power/' ot confers ^^purchasing- 
power'' on its owner, eyerj^body directly or in- 
directly indebted to the goyernment, will want 
that sicarce thing which pays taxes or public rent. 

Would the receipt of a particular material in 



74 THE LABOEEKS' CATECHISM 

payment of taxes or puhlic rent he a sufficient 
redemption of any dollar issued hy this govern- 
ment or any other true rejmoKcf It would. 

Why so? Because a truly republican govern- 
ment is the agent of the whole people, and it 
stands in the position of a ^^perpetual claimant'' 
for the payment of the two per cent annual rent, 
due from every private owner of the people's real 
and personal property. If the private owner or 
user of any real or personal property pays this 
year's annual tAvo per-cent-rent he will, later, be 
required to pay next year's two per-cent-rent, and 
then the following year's rent after that, etc. It 
is in the nature of things that many people will 
always want, more or less, and consequently will 
give something valuable for whatever the govern- 
ment receives in payment of public taxes or the 
People's Eent. This relation, between the govern- 
ment and the people, who are the sovereigns hav- 
ing the ^^right to define the right and enforce the 
decision," enables the former to create "purchas- 
ing power" by simply receiving whatever it willj 
in payment of taxes or the People's Eent. When 
the government pays the material so received, out 
for services, and the recipient then spends it and 
receives v^^hat he desires to eat or wear in ex- 
change for it, the material is then redeemed in 
the manner that the subordinate owners of gold 
or silver desire to have their gold or silver re- 
deemed, in order to keep the ^^purchasing-power" 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 75 

of the owners of the white and yellow metals high. 
What is the effect of the governments investing 
a certain form of material {already being received 
in payment of taxes) with the power to discharge 
dehtSy the power to stop {by tender) the running 
of interest on debts^ and the poioer to impose the 
^^ costs of coiirf^ on the creditor refusing to receive 
said material in payment of debts? The value of 
the material so received is greatly increased by 
investing it with these additional qualities. 

LESSON X. 

Is money an essential and convenient institu- 
tion as society is now organized? It is. What 
important function of money is only meagerly 
understood by the people? Its function of ena- 
bling the owners of valuable things, the employers 
of laborers, and the laborers themselves, to make 
whatever exchanges desired, with great economy 
of time and labor. Do the private oioners of 
money ever interfere ivith the oioners of other 
valuable things than money, ichen the latter ivish 
to make exchanges? They frequently do. How 
so? By hoarding their money or by exacting un- 
just rent for the use of it, from the traders in, 
producers or manufacturers of useful things. 
Can you explain further? Yes. When a laborer 
wishes to trade a valuable product of his labor 
for the valuable product of some other laborer, 
in society as now organized, he generally first 



76 THE! LABORERS' CATECHISM 

sells his labor-product to a man owning money, 
(called a meTcliant or speculator) who rarely 
gives the laborer enough value in the form of 
money, to equal the value of the labor-product, 
les8 a reasonable profit, plus transportation and 
other expenses, which can be justly charged by 
the money owner or merchants. As a conse- 
quence, the laborer receives too small a quantity 
of value in money for the product he sells. When- 
ever the laborer has given his labor-product for 
money and then desires to buy with his money <\ 
valuable article to u^e, the owner (or middle 
man) of the article which the laborer desires to 
purchase, extorts too much value in the form of 
monej' from the laborer, before the laborer is per- 
mitted to satisfy his want, by obtaining the ar- 
ticle desired. Thus it is that the laborer is gen- 
erally plucked, when he sells and plucked when 
he buys, by the owner of money. This explains 
the expression : ^^Skinned going and coming.'' 

Can yoii give another example shoicmg hoio 
useful money is in effecting exchanges and facili- 
tating industrial enterprise? I can. What is it? 
It is the experience of a small village on the Isle 
of Wight in the English Channel. The inhabi- 
tants of this village wished to build a town hall 
and the village board passed a resolution order- 
ing the erection of such a building; but the board 
discovered that the edifice would cost £30,000 in 
money and as the village had no funds^ a resolu- 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 77 

toin authorizing the borrowing of that sum at 
six per cent interest was about to be passed, when 
the president of the board arose and asked : ^^I& 
there not stone enough in neighbor Thomas 
Doyle's quarry to construct the foundation of the 
proposed town-hall?'' Several members of tlie 
board answered, ^^There is.'' ^^Ha^n't Charles 
Grant/' again inquired the president, ^^the brick- 
maker in our village, a plant with which he can 
make all the brick we shall need in the building?" 
Again was the replj^ affirmative. 

^^Hasn't A. Urfer, the farmer who lives a few 
miles out from, the village, enough seasoned tim- 
ber to supply all the v/ood that v/ill be required?" 
The answer again was a number of ^^Yesses." 
"Hasn't E. L. Kinloch, the lime and cement 
dealer, all the other building material we may 
need for the purpose of constructing this build- 
ing?" A dozen asserted he had. ^^Haven't we 
a number of carpenters, masons, plumbers, paint- 
ers, etc., in our town, who are prepared to render 
the kind of services we shall need in the erection 
of this: structure?" A»Si usual, the reply was af- 
firmative. "Now it appears to me," continued 
the president, "that if we have the laborers and 
the materials necessary to erect the town-hall, in 
our village or its vicinity, there is no reason why 
we cannot proceed to build immediately." 

^^But," objected a member of the village-board. 



78 THE LABORElKiS' OATEOHISM 

"we must first find some person who will lend ns 
the necessary amount of money." 

"Listen !" rejoined the president. "If this vil- 
lage board will authorize me to issue £30,000 of 
paper script on which shall be printed: ^This 
paper script shall be received in payment of rent 
for the use of any room or store in the town hall/ 
I will undertake to put up the building without 
borrowing a single pound of money from any pri- 
vate individual or banking corporation." 

What newt occurred? A resolution was 
promptly passed authorizing the president to 
issue the script, and to proceed at once with the 
erection of the town-hall. The president there- 
upon consulted the quarryman, brickmaker, lum- 
berman, lime and cement dealer, masons, car- 
penters, plumbers, painters, etc., and learned that 
all were willing to take the paper script in pay- 
ment, for either services or material; because 
the village board had agreed to receive the script 
in payment of rent for the use of the rooms and 
stores, which were intended to form a part of 
the town-hall. Some of the village merchants 
dealing in food\, clothing, hardware, etc., eagerly 
announced, that they would take, at the face 
amount, the script in payment for their mer- 
chandise, for the reason that they intended to hire 
stores in the building, when it was completed, 
and as tenants they would use the script received 
in exchange for their merchandise, to pay the 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 79 

rent which would be due to the landlord of the 
town-hal], who was the president, acting as; agent 
for the town board. These merchants had no 
hesitation in telling the mechanics and material 
men that the script would be useful to purchase 
anything in their stores. 

The president next hired an architect, a num- 
ber of masons, carpenters, plumbers, painters, 
etc., and bought a quantity of stone, bricks, lum- 
ber, mortar, etc. With the paper script he paid 
the mechanics each Saturday night; and the 
material men, when their material had been de- 
livered. 

Within a few months the hall was completed, 
the rooms and stores occupied, and the script, 
which the president had paid out commenced to 
return to him in the form of rent. After a year 
or two, all the £30,000 which had been issued 
(except a very small percentage which had been 
lost or destroyed) came into the hands of the 
president, who thereupon called a meeting of the 
village board. 

When the members were all in their seats and 
the space allotted to spectators crowded, the 
president asked: '^Is there any material-man, 
present or not present, w^ho holds any unpaid bill 
against the village for material furnished in the 
construction of this town-haJl, in which we are 
now meeting?'' A deadly silence took possession 
of the assemblage, but no one uttered a syllable. 



80 THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 

"1^ there any mechanic, architect, laborer, or 
anyone else, present or not present, who has an 
unpaid claim for seryices rendered in construct- 
ing this town-hall?'' Again no one replied. 

^^I don't think there is,'' volunteered the presi- 
dent, ^^because I have a receipted bill, now in 
my possession, for every service rendered or 
material bought during the erection of this edi- 
fice; but in order to avoid any possible mistake, 
I am making this public inquiry for any claim 
that might be outstanding. Evidently all billet 
have been paid, and as I have the £30,000 of paper 
script (excepting a very small percentage which 
has been lost or destroyed) now in my hands, 
and as the town-hall is paying the village a good 
revenue, I wish to announce that the taxes on 
all village property hereafter will be lower. We 
shall now proceed to enjoy a conflagration.'' 

The president then placed the script, which had 
been paid in as rent by the merchants occupying 
the stores, etc., in a tin pan, struck a match, and 
applied its flame to the paper money. The village 
board and spectators then saw the paper script, 
which had enabled the village to build its town- 
hall and effect all kinds of exchanges in so doing, 
pass off in flame and smoke. 

What does this experience of the village hoard 
show? It shows that the paper script was simply 
"purchasing power^^ issued in a convenient 
form, which enabled the laborers, mechanics and 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 81 

material men, engaged in the construction of the 
building, to exchange the ^^purchasing power'' 
they had put into the town-hall for other forms 
of ^^purchasing power/' such as food, clothing, 
shelter, etc., without consulting the private own- 
ers of gold, silver, copper, or any other kind of 
money. 

Can you make this Isle of Wight transaction 
any clearer, I can. What the village board re- 
quired as soon as they had decided to erect a 
town-hall was ^ ^purchasing power," in some con- 
venient form, which would enable the laborers 
and material men to exchange the "purchasing 
power" they were putting into the town-hall, 
while it was in building, for the "purchasing 
power'^ in the possession of the owners of bread, 
meat, coats, hats, shoes, cigars, etc., because of 
such ownership. The issuance of the paper script 
brought into being the necessary "purchasing 
power" which enabled the enterprise to be car- 
ried to a successful finish. Because the village 
board was capable of performing its contract, 
the merchants who expected to occupy stores in 
the town-hall, were willing to accept the paper 
script and give valuable things in exchange for 
it, on account of their knowledge that the script 
would have value or "purchasing power" in pay- 
ing for the use of the rooms and stores in the 
town-hall. When the board pledged itself, by 
resolution, to receive the script in payment of 



82 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

rent^ it exercked its natural right to create ^^pur- 
chasing poAver-' or valuable money^ and thereby 
supplied itself with capital. Whatever article 
or material any creditor agrees to receive in pay- 
ment of debts or other enforcible obligations^ 
immediately becomes valuable and enables the 
owner to exercise ^^purchasing power/' if the 
creditor is responsible. This is particularly true 
of justly organized republican governments. 

Then the paper script teas simply ^^purchasing 
power^^ hrottght into being hy a resolution of the 
village hoard? Exactly. Just as a rich man can 
bring into being ^^purchasing power'' by issuing 
a promissory note, which promises to pay or de- 
liver^ coal, wood, dollars, bonds, etc., to the 
payee. 

What is the difference hetween ^'purchasing 
power^^ brought into being by a nation and that 
brought into being by an individual f The possi- 
bility of a nation's ^^purchasing power" ever pass- 
ing away is extremely remote, because it owns 
everything within the domain of the nation ; but 
the probability of an individuaPs ^^purchasing 
power" passing away, becomes a certainty at the 
death of the individual, whose ownership of all 
real and personal property then terminates. 

What is the difference between a promissory 
note issued by an individual and the paper script 
issued by the village board? The negotiable 
promissory note of an individual (which prom- 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 83 

fees to p^j money) niust ultimately be paid in 
money in order to be valnable and to be redeemed ; 
just as a bill of lading in order to be valuable 
and to be redeemed^ must be ultimately exchanged 
for merchandise. But the script issued by the 
yillage board, required no redemption in money 
or merchandise by the village. The simple fact 
that the merchants could pay their rent to their 
landlord (the village board) with the script, 
made the paper script valuable ; and because the 
script was valuable, it passed current in the vil- 
lage and enabled all persons receiving the script, 
Avho had claims for valuable material built into 
the town-hall, or for services rendered by adding 
to the value of the tov/n-hall, to exchange the 
valuable script for other valuable things such as 
groceries, clothing, etc. 

Was this paper script issued hy the village 
board capital? Yes. It was capital in a very 
convenient form. 

Could the village board have built another 
toivn-hall by issuing more script? They could. 
But if they built too many town-halls and thereby 
increased the supply of town-halls beyond the 
demand for them, merchants would not give 
much rent for stores in any of the town-halls. 
There is a limit beyond which the building of 
town-hallsi or the issuance of paper script should 
not be carried. 

What is that limit f I shall explain that in a 



84 THE LABORERS' CATEOHISM 

subsequent lesson. Could the village hoard have 
huilt a railroad in the saine manner? They could, 
if the railroad were not too large to be handled 
with the amount of ^^purchasing power'' conferred 
on the village board, by their ownership of all 
the real and personal property in the yillage. 

Then ivhat this government of the United 
States reqiiij^es more than anything else is a con- 
venient form of ^^ptirchasing poiver/^ which can 
not he selfvshly controlled or ^^cornered^^ hy pri- 
vate individuals? That is exactly it. And when 
this goyernment had a greater supply per capita 
of conyenient ^^purchasing power' than what it 
has now, as it did in ^Svar times/' the laborers 
in this country enjoyed, generally, the moet pros- 
perity they eyer did before or since; notwith- 
standing that the money ^^cornerers," tax dodgers 
and yote buyers of Wall Street and similar 
places affirm that the ^^good times" during the 
war was a "fictitious prosperity." 

How would the village hoard have fared had 
they horrowed the £30,000 at 6% frojn private 
individuals? They probably would haye paid to 
the lendersi enough interest at 6%, when com- 
pounded, to equal in twenty yeare, three times 
the principal, and still owe the original amount 
borrowed. i -^|#;^W: 

Does this Isle of Wight transaction evince hoio 
private individuals, tvho oicn and control great 
quantities of money, can interfere ivith or oh- 



THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 85 

struct public and private enterprises? It does. 
How^ so? By refusing to let the village board 
have the use of their privately owned money, on 
any terms whatsoever, the private individuals 
owning money, could have prevented the erection 
of the town-hall; or by lending their money at 
exhorbitant rent or interest for its use, they 
could probably have kept the whole village per- 
petually in debt to money-lenders. But the vil- 
lage president's sensible idea enabled the village 
board to create sufficient ^^purchasing power'' in 
the form of valuable paper script to build the 
hall, independent of the desire for personal gain 
on the part of any private individual or clique of 
individuals. When the script had accomplished 
its purpose, viz., to enable the architect, 
mechanics, and material-men, to effect their neces- 
sary exchanges, it naturally came back to the 
president, who instead of paying it out again, as 
he could have done, for services and material to 
be used in the construction of another building, 
burned it up. 

Gould the village hoard in any manner increase 
the ^^ purchasing poioer^^ of the paper script? 
They could if the general government above the 
village board permitted. In what way? By in- 
creasing the demand for the script. Gan^t you 
make yourself clearer? When the village board 
agreed to take the script in payment of town-hall 
rent, the script was in vigorous demand by only 



86 THE LABOKEES' CATECHISM 

the few merchants Avho expected to occupy rooms 
and stores in the hall. If the village board had 
agreed to receive the script in pajanent of all 
Adllage taxes, the demand for the script by all 
persons owing the village taxes, or who expected 
to pay taxes to the village at a future time, would 
have further increased. This increase in the 
number of persons desiring to get possession of 
the script, would have made it more valuable than 
when only the few merchants intending to 
occupy 'rooms and stores in tlie town-hall desired 
to get it. 

Could the value or ^"^ purchasing poiver^^ of the 
script have been still further increased? It could. 
Eoio so? By giving the script power to discharge 
debts, to stop the running of interest on debts, 
and to force the payment of the ^^costs of court" 
on all persons, who refused to receive the script in 
paj^ment of debts. 

Gould the village hoard have decreased the 
^^ purchasing power^^ or value of the script? It 
could. Eoio could it? By increasing the supply 
of script until the supply of script exceeded the 
demand for it. 

Is not this poicer of creating valuable script or 
dollars too important a power to leave to the 
regulation of such a body as the village board? 
It is. • ^^'-YM 

Who alone should exercise this important 
poicer of bringing into being ^^purchasing power^^ 



THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 87 

in the form of script or dollars f The natioaal 
gOYernment only^ and then subject to the most 
rigorous regulations. 

Was not this script issued by the village hoard 
siiuply ^^credit nioneyf^ No. It was ^^purchasing 
power" actually brought into being by the resolu- 
tion of the village board. Can you make yourself 
clearer f Yes. Credit means trusting some one to 
return a thing borrowed or its equivalent in 
value with or without compensation. The village 
board borrowed no moneys consequentlj^, there 
was no ^^credit money'' whatever in the trans- 
action. When the president gave a mason work- 
ing on the town-hall some of the script, as 
wages, the mason had his ^^purchasing power" in 
his hands. The mason did not credit the presi- 
dent with anything which the former was later 
to give back to the mason. The mason had in- 
creased the value or "purchasing power" of the 
owners of the town-hall, by skillfully laying 
bricks into a wall to form a part of the town- 
hall. For this increase in the value of the town- 
hall, by laying brick on top^ of bricksi, in suitable 
beds of mortar, the president gave the mason 
"purchasing power" in the form of paper script; 
just as the grocer gave to the mason "purchasing 
power" in the form of bread, beef, clothing, etc., 
when the mason spent his paper script at the 
counter of the merchant who intended to hire a 
store in the town-hall; and just as the merchant 



88 THE LABOREES' OATEIOiHISM 

could have spent tlie script for more groceries. 
Credit always involves ^^time" long or short, in 
which to return something or its equivalent in 
value with or without compensati'on. The mason 
did not credit the president with anything. As 
soon as the mason had finished increasing the 
^^purchasing power'' of the owners of the town- 
hall, according to the contract, he received back 
^^purchasing power'' in the form of the paper 
script, which was exchanged at the merchant'^ 
store for "purchasing power" in the form of hats, 
coats, beef, sugar, etc! 

Then any great government founded on the 
consent of the people and truly representing 
them^ can bring into being ^^ purchasing poiver^^ at 
any time? It can as long as the government ad- 
heres to Truth, Right and Justice and does not 
over-produce its "purchasing power." 

According to your theory^ a government might 
produce in the form of money too much ^^purchas- 
ing power T^ It certainly might; because when 
any government issues more money than there is 
a demand for, the money becomes useless, ex- 
cepting for converting the material of which the 
money is composed, into some other article of 
consumption or utility. 

Then any great government can always supply 
itself with all the capital or ^^purchasing 
poioer^^ it requires with which to employ laborers 



THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 89 

at any time, if it acts justly and intelligently? It 
certainly can. 

Why do not great governments exercise this 
potcer of bringing into being ichatever capital 
they may need? Because private individuals, 
sucli as bankers, money-lenders, money-cornerers, 
stock-brokers, vote-buyers, etc., by the means of 
bribing public servants and disseminating flnan- 
ical falsehoods among the people, prevent them. 

LESSON XI. 

How would you regulate the issuance of dollars 
so that they would not be either too low or too 
high in value or ^^purchasing poiverF^ I would 
have a Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States who would be elected directly by the voters 
of the United States and (subject to the power of 
recall under a system of Perpetual Voting which 
I shall hereinafter explain) in whom would be 
vested the absolute power to regulate the supply 
of dollars throughout these United States in 
accordance with the following articles by the late 
David Reeves Smith : 

"Article 1. On or before the tenth day of 
every month, let every person in the United States 
who employs others, make in writing a true 
statement, on a blank form provided by the gov- 
ernment for the purpose, of the number of per- 
sons employed by him during the preceding 
month ; the wages per hour paid to each person 



90 THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 

80 employed; and the wages paid per hour for 
the same kind of work during the month pre- 
ceding the one above mentioned. On the same 
day, or the day after that on which the said 
written statement is prepared, let it be mailed to 
the Secretary of the Treasmy of the United 
States. 

"Article 2. The Secretary of the Treasury 
shall leave out of consideration one-fourth part of 
the number of persons so employed and reported 
in the several statements provided for in Article 
1st; which fourth part shall consist of those re- 
ceiving the highest wages per hour; and he shall 
ascertain, as soon as possible, the average wages 
per hour received by the other three-fourths part, 
and shall consider that average to have been the 
average wages per hour of the corresponding 
month, and he shall compare that average with 
the average of the month preceding that, and 
thereby ascertain whether wages per hour are 
increasing or decreasing, and at what rate per 
cent; and on every month thereafter the Secre- 
tary shall in like manner ascertain the average of 
wages per hour and the rate of increase or de- 
crease for the preceding month. 

"Article 3. The SecTetary shall from time to 
time increase the quantity of money in circula- 
tion, but shall never under any circumstances 
whatever, withdraw from circulation enough to 
decrease the average rate of wages. T\Tienever 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 91 

the Secretary shall observe a decrease in the 
ayerage rate of wages, he shall iminediatelY add 
to the quantity of monej^^ in circulation so much 
as shall appear to be required to restore the 
highest average rate of y> ages that had at any 
time been observed after the first monthly state- 
ments had been made. The purpose which the 
Secretary shall have always in view will be to 
issue just enough currency to prevent the average 
of v/ages from being for any two consecutive 
months below the highest point at any time 
reached ; but not enough to cause any greater ad- 
vance in wages, at any time, than shall appear to 
be necessary or incidental to this method of pre- 
venting a decline in wageis.'' 

Would not this plan of issuing money place 
too much power in the hands of a single indi- 
vidual? It would, if the Secretary of the Treasury 
could not be immediately removed from office by 
the people under said system of Perpetual Voting 
in case he did any thing detrimental to the inter- 
ests of the people according to their regularly 
and duly exercised judgment. How would the 
Secretary put the money out? By establishing 
Government Employment Stations in all cities 
with a population of 100,000 or more, at which 
any person could obtain emiployment at making 
highways, building post-offices, erecting school- 
housesi or meeting-halls, laying out paTks, or pro- 
ducing anything which the National Government 



92 THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 

or the people required, and paying for the^eryices 
m render edj with full legal tender paper dollars 
issued hy the Secretary of the Treasury. 

How^ much per day or hour should he puid 
the workers given employment at these Govern- 
ment Stations? That would depend on the 
average wages, as shown by the reports sent to 
the Secretary of the Treasury. If the ^^average 
wages'' as determined from the reports were, two, 
three, or four dollars per day, or so much per 
hour (it matters not what the amount) at what- 
eyer figure the Secretary found ^^ayerage wages," 
he must keep "average wages" at that amount, 
either by increasing or decreasing the supply of 
money in circulation, and ordering more work at 
increased daily wages or less work at decreased 
daily wages at the Government Stations, or by 
holding the money in, when it came into the 
treasury by the way of taxation or the People's 
Rent. 

Can you make this any clearer? Yes. If five 
hours were to constitute a working-day and five 
dollars a day were the average wages of the not- 
capitalist class, (three- fourths-class) it would 
take one hour's average work to obtain a dollar; 
and one dollar would command one hour's aver- 
age work at all times. The dollar issued in this 
manner, would be a Unit of money and the one 
hour's average work would be a Unit of labor, 
and each would exchange for the other, as long 



THEi LABORERS' CATECHISM 93 

as money was issued according to this system. 
The relative supply of money would then always 
be the same as the relative supply of labor. 

Would the prices of apples or any other com- 
modity go up when measured in this just money? 
They would. As the supply of apples or other 
commodities became scarce, and the demand re- 
mained the same, the apples would increase in 
money-price; or when the supply of apples be- 
came plentiful and demand remained the same, 
the money-price of apples would go down. 

How is it now with the present U. 8. system of 
issuing money ^ under lohich private individuals 
and corporations regulate the supply f Sometimes 
when the supply of potatoes is plentiful, because 
the supply of money has been increased, the 
money price of potatoes goes up and vice versa. 

Would it make any difference at what average 
rate per day the Secretary fixed the wages? It 
would not, as long as the Secretary kept the 
"average of wages'' at a particular figure. For 
instance, it is my personal opinion, that the 
"average of wages'' ought to be raised to about 
five dollars per day, in order to supply the people 
with enough money to easily pay off the various 
forms of indebtedness which have been foisted on 
them by the innumerable "financial sharps," 
which this grabbing age has produced. Then, 
ever after, the Secretary of the Treasury should 



94 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

keep the ^^average of wages'' at five dollam per 
day or a certain equiyalent amount per hour. 

What should the Secretary do ivhen the average 
of tvages fell to |4.95 per day. Bring the average 
wages up to $5.00 per day or eighty-three and 
one-third cents per hour (provided the working 
day consisted of six hours daily toil) by ordering 
more work at the Government Stations and pay- 
ing a few more cents per day. 

What should the Secretary do, when the aver' 
age of ivages as shown hy the reports sent to the 
Secretary of the Treasury hy the prwate em- 
ployers, went up to $5.05 per day? Withhold 
money fromi circulation^ by ordering a little less 
work and reducing a few cents per day, the wages 
paid at the Government Stations. 

What should he the constant duty of the Secre-^ 
tary while watching these reports? To keep the 
^^average rate'' of wages, of the ^^three-foarth8 
class" at five dollars per day, drawing or holding 
in money, when ^^average wages" went above that 
figure per day ; and putting money out by giving 
more employment at the Government Stations 
when the ^^average wages" fell below that figure. 

Would the Secretary ever under this system he 
required to ivithdraio money from circulation? 
Not if money cornering or counterfeiting could be 
prevented. Why not? Because all money natur- 
ally tends to contract itself, due in part to the 
fact that an important fraction of every nation's 



THEl LABOKEKS' OATEOHISM 95 

money is lost, hoarded, deisfcroyed, worn out, or 
locked up. On this account, the Secretary's duty 
would generally be tO' increase the supply of 
money. 

Would money issued in this manner meet 
either a large or small demand for it? It would. 
Whij so? For the reason that when the demand 
for money increased, the applicants for work at 
the Government Stations would increase, because 
the ^^average wages'' earned away from the Gov- 
ernment Stations by the employees of private 
employers or persons working for themselves 
would decrease, which would send more appli- 
cants for work to the Government Stations. This 
decrease in the ^^average wages" as exhibited in 
the ^^monthly reports," would warn the Secretary 
that he must start more improvements for the 
purpose of employing more workmen and getting 
out more money, in order to keep up the ^^average 
of wages." If the demand for money decreased, 
there would be fewer persons seeking work at the 
Government Stations. As the Secretary could 
issue paper dollars as fast as ^^money cornerers" 
or bankers locked them upv any scarcity of money, 
shown by the reports, in a decreased daily or 
hourly ^^average of wages," could be immediately 
met, on the part of the Secretary, by putting out 
enough more new money in the manner described, 
to keep the "average of wages" at the particular 
figure decided upon. 



96 THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 

In this way the demand for money would be 
exactly met^ no more, no lem. 

What effect would this system of issuing money 
have on the ^^cornerers^^ of money throughout the 
United States? It would drive them out of the 
^^money cornering'' businessi, because they would 
be unable to increase the ^^purchasing-power" of 
money by decreasing the amount in circulation 
and thereby forcing down the prices of other 
commodities as the result of the locking up' of 
large or ^mall sums of money. Any sum of 
money locbed up in this manner could be easily 
replaced by the Secretary of the Treasury. 

Who invented this system of issuing money f 
The late David Reeves Smith. What did he call 
money so issued^ and controlledf ^^Just Money." 
Why? Because it is a money which will at all 
times confer on its owners the same quantity of 
"purchasing power" ; a money which will satisfy 
the demand for it whether great or small; a 
money which will render it impossible for pTivate 
individual-money-owners to stand in the way of 
the laborer, when he wishes to make some useful 
article ; a money the supply of which will be regu- 
lated according to the needs of labor ; and a 
money which will rest upon a "unit of labor" as 
shown in the monthly reports sent to the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. Is there any other advan- 
tage about Just Money? Yes, it would always 
come out through the handfSi of the workers, the 



THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 97 

most useful and numerous class in society; in- 
stead of coming out througli the few possessors of 
special privilege and great wealth ; as is the case 
under our present banking and financial laws. 
Would money issued and controlled in this man- 
ner supply/ the industrious and enterprising 
lahorers with all the capital they required? It 
would. Why so? Because capital is ^^purchasing- 
power in reserve'' and, consequently, whenever 
competent laborers wished to undertake any 
practical kind of an enterprise they could get all 
the necessary capital or "purchasing-power'' they 
required, while carrying the enterprise to a suc- 
cessful conclusion, provided the laborer or 
laborers had any valuable assets, or w^ere willing 
to go to work at the Government Stations and be 
paid for their services by the secretary of the 
treasury, in full legal-tender paper dollars, of 
substantially unvarying value, and issued in the 
manner hereinbefore described. How would the 
industrious lahorers he enahled to ohtain assets? 
The Two Per Cent People's Rent, when collected 
annually; the Assembly District Recording Law 
with its penalty of forfeiture in case of failure to 
record any real or personal property; and the 
Self-Assessment Law, which have been heretofore 
described, will reduce all large fortunes and 
make it imposisible for anyone to hold out of use 
any real or personal property without paying 
annually the People's Two Per Cent Rent on its 



98 THE LABORERS' OATECBISM 

full value. When the^e laws are on our national 
statute books and are enforced, industrious and 
provident laborers will never be without assets 
and they will be generally working for them- 
selves, except when they can earn higher wages 
toiling for an employer. 

What do you mean hy assets? Any valuable 
real or personal property, which also includes 
money. 

Why do yon affirm that these three laws will 
generally destroy Mg fortunes? Because the nat- 
ural law of Diminishing Returns and the collec- 
tion of the People's Rent on the full value of all 
real and personal property (with the two excep- 
tions heretofore explained) will make it impos- 
sible for the present owners of large quantities 
of valuable wealth to hold or own large quantities 
of valuable wealth, without paying the People's 
Rent on its full value, when enterprising laborers 
are offering the government the People's Rent or 
tax, on a higher valuation of said property, than 
that on which any non-producing rich person 
could pay the Two Per Cent Rent. What do you 
mean by the Law of Diminishing Returns? I will 
illustrate by an example: when a man owns a 
house equivalent in value to ten thousand dollars, 
he may be able to manage, without other labor 
than his own, the house ; rent it, keep it in repair, 
pay the taxes or Two Per Cent Rent on its full 
value, and, by working himself, obtain an average 



THE LABOKEKiS' OATEiOHISM 99 

living for himself and dependents, by means of 
the net return from it. But if he owned two such 
houses, he would find that the return from the 
second |10,000 house was diminishing, because 
he could not manage two |10,000 houses as effi- 
ciently as he could one. And if he were to buy 
a third |10,00'0i house, the net return from the 
third house would still be less pro rata than that 
on either the first or second house. The net 
return on the fourth $10,000 house bought, would 
still be further decreased, until on the fifth 
$10,000 house purchased, he would have no re- 
turn, and probably on the sixth $10,000 house 
acquired, he might lose money. Whi/ are you 
sure that this Law of Diminishing Returns is 
true? Because the more valuable property a 
small number of ownersi hold, the higher up in 
value does said property go, due to the fact that a 
large number of people must do with less of such 
property because the fewer have obtained m^ore. 
This relation is always expressed in the value of 
the property, and if the law of value were given 
free play the more property the average man 
owns the less would be his rate of return from it 
as compared with a man who owns just enough to 
keep himself comfortably and profitably em- 
ployed. Is there any other reason for the Law of 
Diminishing Returns? Yes. A wise Providence 
has so decreed things that when a valuable prop- 
erty is not repaired and cared for it genei'ally 



100 THEi LABORERS' CATEOHISM 

and rapidly tends to decay, and in time resolves 
itself into some preceding elementary state, un- 
less more labor is expended in preserying it. To 
preserve valuable property from decay every 
large property-owner must iiire additional 
assistance, asi the amount be holds or owns in- 
creases in value and quantity. For the reason 
that the average hired man will not work for an 
employer as well as he will work for himself the 
large property-owner discovers that the more 
men he hires (a hired man seldom equals in 
energy a man working for himself) the more of 
his own time must be spent in watching or super- 
intending the hired men and, consequently, the 
less of his own personal labor can he apply to the 
care and profitable management of the property. 
This entails an additional rate of loss to the large 
property-owner, or a diminishing net return, as 
the quantity and value of the property owned by 
him is increased. 

Would this Just Money te a very stable cur- 
rency in the event of tear with another nation? 
It would be the very best currency in the event of 
war. Why so? Because every citizen in a true 
republic who possesses Just Money wall not be 
disposed to have the ^^purchasing-power'' of his 
money destroyed as a result of the destruction of 
the true republic. Consequently, he would be 
more selfishly inclined to uphold the true repub- 
lic issuing his money and to fight for it, in case 



THE LABORERS' CATEOHISM 101 

of war, than if the value of his money were in the 
form of gold or silver, whose owners, like the 
Pothsehilds and their kind, would, most prob- 
ably, take away their white and yellow metal, 
when the true republic is engaged in a war 
struggie; a time in which a nation needs its ^^pur- 
chasing-power'' the most. 

How many of these Government Stations at 
which U. S. citizens could oMain employment 
would you have established throughout the 
United States? As many a^i there are cities con- 
taining a population of one hundred thousand 
persons or over. Why so many cities f For the 
reason that there should be many money centers 
in this country, instead of one chief center ( Wall 
Street and vicinity) as is the case to-day. Have 
you any other reason? Yes. The number of 
money centers, such as the proposed Government 
Stations, would then be so distributed throughout 
the United States, that unemployed citizens or 
those citizens desiring government work, would 
not be compelled to travel a long distance in 
order to obtain government employment. Would 
this kind of money {Just Money) generally re- 
main at home in this country to facilitate the 
exchange of commodities? It would. Why so? 
Because such money would generally buy more 
in this country than elseT\^here and because every 
Just-Money-dollar taken abroad, which was not 
lost or destroyed, would soon come back to this 



102 THE LABOREKiS' CATECHISM 

country, in which its "purcliasing power'' would 
generally be the greatest, in order to be exchanged 
for other U(seful things. Would this government 
sustain any loss as a result of any Just Money 
being taken abroad and lost or destroyed? It 
would not. Why not? Because every dollar of 
Just Money lost or destroyed abroad, would be 
equal in value to a quantity of useful articles left 
in the United States! for u^e and consumption by 
Americans, instead of being applied to the use of 
foreigners, as would be the case, if the Just 
Money lost or destroyed abroad had been used by 
the foreigners to purchase American articles of 
utility for the use and consumption of those 
foreigners who had lost or destroyed the Just 
Money. Could the script issued^ by the Isle of 
Wight village board^ be used to circulate abroad? 
Not to any great extent. But script legally issued 
in the same manner with full legal tender-power 
by a national government founded on the consent 
of the people could. Why so? For the reason 
that the script issued by a true republic would be 
an order or a draft on all useful or valuable 
property for sale in the true republic, issuing it 
and such script would always exchange for a 
quantity of useful or desirable things equal in 
value to the value of said quantity of nationally 
issued script, provided the nation's script was a 
full-legal-tender Just Money. Would this Just 
Money measure the value of any real or personal 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 103 

property in the United States without injustice 
to the owners f It would. Why loould it? Be- 
cause its supply would not depend on any caprice 
of Nature ; nor would it be increased or decreased 
T>y any machinations of ^^money speculators." 
While the supply of houses, land or commodities 
might change, the average daily or hourly wages 
of laborers would bear the same relation to labor 
at all times; that is, it would take the same 
quantity of average labor to get a, Just Money 
dollar at all times, and the quantity of Just 
Money required to buy any real or personal prop- 
erty would be large, w^hen such property was 
scarce, and small, when such property was plenti- 
ful ; just asi would be the case when said property 
was scarce, it would require more ^^ayerage 
labor'' to get it, and when said property was 
plentiful, it would require less "ayerage labor" 
to get it. In this manner, a ^^labor unit" founded 
on the ^^ayerage wage«," per hour or day, paid in 
the United States, as shown by the reports sent 
each month to the Secretary of the Treasury by 
the employers of labor, would be the basis of Just 
Money. 

LESSON XII. 

// yon could convince the American people that 
the Just Money System^ and the Death Bate Tax 
System^, were all that you contend they are^ hoio 
could you prevent public officials from ''selling 
the people ouf^ to the taw-dodgers, money-corner^ 



104 THE; LABOREKS^ CATECHISM 

ers and vote-buyers^ as they noiv do^ tmder our 
present government f The adoption of the late 
David Eeeves Smith's system of Perpetual Voting 
(see cut in appendix), under which the electors 
could exercise absolute control over their public 
servants, at all times, by the meanis of the Power 
of Recall, would compel public officials to become 
public servants in practice as well as in theory, 
and when any of them ^^sold out" their con- 
stituents, they could be immediately removed 
from public office. 

Can you more clearly explain this Perpetual 
System of Toting icith ichich you propose to con- 
trol the Secretary of the Treasury and all other 
important puhlic officials ^ lohen he issues this 
Just Money? Yes. It is a system of voting under 
which the elector writes on a book, kept for the 
purpose, called a Vote Record, the name of his 
candidate. Would not the electofs writing on a 
hook disclose to the puhlic how he voted and 
thereby destroy the ^^secrecy of the hallof^f It 
would. But secrecy at the ballot-box is wrong. 
Every elector should be required to vote in such 
a, manner that any neighbor, so desiring, could 
learn how he voted. Is not the secret system of 
voting the best? It is the very worst. Why so? 
Because under the cover of secrecy the greatest 
frauds, outrages and hypocrisies at the ballot-box, 
can be perpetrated. What do you mean? I mean 
that when the voting is secret, it is easiest for dis- 



THE! LABORERS' CATECHISM 105 

honest inspectors or other election officials to 
overturn the will of the people in hig cities and 
elsewherej by permitting or being unable to pre- 
vent ^^repeaters'' from voting, or by dishonestly 
counting the vote. 

Whtf can^t fraudulent repeaters under the 
secret haUot be prevented from voting? Because 
professional ^^repeaters/' by acquiring; a tem- 
porary ^^voting residence'' in compliance with the 
law in different polling precinct^i, are enabled to 
vote illegally in several precincts. As no in- 
spector of elections can familiarize himself with 
all, or sometimes even a large majority of the 
voters in a densely populated election precinct, 
he must in many cases accept the represientations 
of the ^^repeater" or his abettor^;, as to the re- 
peater's identity and Tight to vote. But under 
the system of requiring each elector to inscribe in 
his own handwriting, the name of a candidate on 
the Vote Record, it would be possible to discover, 
in a comparatively short time, that the repeater's 
handwriting was that of a man who was not en- 
titled to vote. Then the vote could be declared 
illegal and not counted. Could not the repeater^ s 
vote he thrown oid tinder the present system- 
when the ballots icere counted at night by the 
inspectors? It can not. Why not? Because the 
^^repeater's" ballot generally presents an appear- 
ance similar to that of the honest electors and 



106 THEi LABOEEES' OATEOHISM 

therefore can not be distingxiislied from an honest 
elector's ballot. 

What other ohjectiofi have you to secret vot- 
ing? It enables an elector to pretend to be a 
friend of Truth^ Eight, and Justice, three hun- 
dred and sixty-four days in the year, and then, 
on the three hundred and sixty-fifth (election 
day), in consideration of employment or a money 
payment, vote for rascality and corruption, with- 
out any one knowing it, excepting the politician 
who buys the vote and the yote-seller himself. 

Any other objection? Yes. The fact that secret 
voting enables ignorant and thoughtless electors 
to shirk the responsibility of their votes. Hoio 
sof By affirming, when an officer elected by them 
has proven incompetent or dishonest, that they 
did not vote for said officer. If ice had an open 
system of voting would not the rich man intimi- 
date the poor man hy threatening the latter tvith 
loss of employment? Not if the recording system 
of voting were applied to the whole United States. 
Why not? Because if everj^one entitled to a vote 
in the United States were forced to vote openly, 
it would soon be discovered that the employers 
were very much in the minority, and when the 
workmen learned how great their majority was, 
(provided the laws hereinbefore described, which 
would prevent tax-dodging and money-cornering, 
were adopted) the workers would not submit to 
dictation on the part of a small minority whose 



THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 107 

"purchasing power'' would be greatly reduced by 
the adoption and enforcement of the laws herein- 
before explained. Have you any other reason? 
Yea What is it? Under this Perpetual Voting 
System^ every elector would be permitted to 
change hi^ vote once a week, and with this power 
of changing his vote, the elector could enact laws 
which would prevent the employer from "bull- 
dozing" his employes. Besides, when an elector 
could withdraw his support from any official, at 
the end of a week, all government officials in 
ord^T to hold their "jobs" would strive to please 
their constituents. As doing right will only 
satisfy the majority of voters (when all the facts 
are spread before them), employers would be 
forced by the government to refrain from in- 
timidating workmen. Hoio do you knoio that the 
electors would stand up for their rights under 
open voting? For the reason that, when the 
Ownership-Record, Self -Assessment and Just 
Money laws, are on our statute books, all enter- 
prising workmen will own enough property with 
"purchasing power" to enable them to exercise 
the courage of independent free-holders. As 
owners of homesteads exempt from taxation to 
the amount of |2,000, and free from confiscation 
for debt to that amount, in addition to having 
an opportunity to obtain employment at the Gov- 
ernment Stations and be paid in Just Money of 
unvarying value, no industrious and provident 



108 THE LiABOEEES' CATECHISM 

citizen would in any sense, be dependent on any 
employer, as is the case under our present U. S. 
Goyemment, under whicli a very large per cent 
of our most valuable wealth is monopolized by a 
few individuals. The ability to live independ- 
ently, would make ^^liberty-lovers" out of the 
majority of workers who would not, when they 
enjoyed true liberty, fear any great capitalist. 
Only extraordinarily talented men would, under 
these laws, possess great quantities of capital, and 
immensely rich persons would be so few in num- 
ber, that no intelligent laborer could be intim- 
idated by any emploj^er. Ha^e you any other 
reason for affirming that secrecy at the hallot is 
wrong? Under the secret ballot it cannot be 
easily discoveTed who are voting for vicious prin- 
ciples or bad men, and who are voting for just 
principles or good men, and at the same time 
(when the discovery is made) deal out to each 
credit or discredit, respectively, by the means of 
public opinion, as would be the case when electors 
vote by writing their candidate's name on a pub- 
lic record. Why do yow insist that a public 
record of every vote should he preserved under a 
just system of voting? Because the illegal vote, 
when once detected and identified, under an open 
method of recording votes, could be rendered 
nugatory^ by the inspector's refusing to count it ; 
while the honest vote could be preserved and 
given at all times, the full credit it deserves. 



THE LABOEiERS' OATEOHISM 109 

What loould he the effect of secret voting if it 
toere logically carried out^, all through our gov- 
ernmenty fro7n the voter at the hallot-hox down 
to a vote hy the members of the V. S. Senate? It 
would destroy all responsibility to the people on 
the part of every public department so voting. 
Can you make yowrself clearer? Yes. If our U. 
S. Senate, House of RepreeentativeSj State Senate 
and State Assembly, were to vote secretly, the 
sovereign people could not place, where it be- 
longed, the responsibility for any bad national or 
state law, which might be passed, and as a result 
the people would be helplessly in the hands of 
mercenary legislators!, who could sell their votes 
and receive the booty therefor, without being dis- 
covered by their constituencies. Bedlam would 
ensue throughout the United States; if secret vot- 
ing were allowed in our state and national halls 
of legislation, during the enactment of laws, as 
secret voting is now practiced at the ballot-box 
by our sovereign electors, when choosing their 
public officials. What is the relation nnder our 
American Repnblic hetiveen public officials and 
the voters? That of servant and sovereigTi. When 
our public servants, such as U. S. Senators^ 
Representatives y State Senators and Assembly^ 
men, vote openly in their respective 'bodies^ is it 
not cowardly and inconsistent for their masters, 
the sovereign electors , to vote secretly? It certain- 
ly is. Why so? Because any people who are fit to 



110 THE LABOKEES' CATECHISM 

govern themselves should never be guilty of any 
deed which they are ashamed to record, nor 
should they hesitate to acknowledge any act, good 
or bad, particularly when they insist on their 
public servants acknowledging their votes. Manly 
citizens never ask their servantis, public or pri- 
vate, to do what they are afraid to do themselves. 
Antf other reason? Yes. No elector should ask 
any public official to vote openly without being 
willing to vote openly himself. Practical politi- 
cians! never permit their delegates in political 
conventions to vote secretly; the delegates must 
all vote openly. Have you any other reason for 
approving of open voting? Yes. Open voting and 
keeping a public record of every legal vote, would 
enable public officials to observe any change in 
the reasoning of the people and anticipate it, if 
the change were for the better. Would not voters 
change their officials and their policies too fre- 
quently if they loere enjoying a system of voting 
under which they could recall their public 
servants' at any time? They might, when the 
system first went into vogue ; but when their intel- 
ligence had been improved by learning how to 

stop VOTE-BUYING^ MONEY-CORNERING and TAX- 
DODGING^ they would discover that all officials 
must be left long enough in office to fairly test 
any particular policy. Most people are naturally 
conservative, and disposed to cling to old forms 
and customs too tenaciously. They refuse gen- 



THE LABOKERS' OATECHISM 111 

erally to adopt new forms and customsi suddenly. 
Nations have with few exeeptions been disposed 
to avoid innovations of any kind, and, as a con- 
seqeunce, radical measures would not be sud- 
denly adopted, if the people were permitted to 
freely exercise their own judgment. Ea^e yon 
any other reason for advocating open voting? 
Yes. What is it? The reason urged by Cicero, 
the great Roman lawyer, who nearly two thou- 
siand years ago said : that in order to obtain or 
measure the moral value (character) of the votes 
by a consideration of the person who gave them, 
the voting must be open. In other words, in order 
to enable a good man to exercise his righteous 
influence on his fellow beings, the laws and can- 
didatessi for which he voted, should be known to 
all the electors ; and what the bad men were vot- 
ing for, should also be known, that it might be 
opposed by the honest and righteous. Would the 
people have sufficient intelligence to properly 
direct their public servants? The majority would, 
if all the facts were submitted to them. How do 
the masses of people generally measure the 
efficiency of public officials? By the quantity of 
general prosperity the masses enjoy. When pros- 
perity is great, under certain public oflflcials, the 
disposition of the majority of voters is to retain 
such officials in power ; and when the prosperity 
is small, the disposition of the majority of 
electors is to turn out of office the public func- 



112 THE LABOREiES' CATECHISM 

tionaries responsible for the increased adyersiity 
or reduced prosperity. What are the chief fea- 
tures of Perpetual Yoting? It permits the people 
to exercise the ^^power of recall''; to introduce 
any law they desire to have written on our statute 
books; to decide what per cent of the vote shall 
elect to^ or remove any official from office ; to veto 
or repeal any unjust law; to nominate a candi- 
date directly ; and to have indisputable evidence 
against any fraudulent voter who attempts to 
vote by writing down any candidate's name on 
the Vote Record. Would not your system of 
requiring an elector to torite his candidate's 
name on a Vote Record in each elect ionrprecinct^ 
exclude from voting all who could not write? It 
would. Would not this he unjust to the illiterate? 
It would not. Why not? Because if the few 
illiterate were disfranchisied, the advantages de- 
rived from fair and honest elections, as the result 
of writing down all candidates' names, would 
more than offset the small injury done the few 
illiterate. Besides, the illiterate would then have 
a greater incentive to learn to write. It would 
be no great task for an uneducated man to prac- 
tice writing, sufficiently, to enable him to write 
down a single candidate's name at one time. 

Have you any other reason for insisting that a 
voter must write down his candidate's name? Yes. 
What is it? If the state' has; the right to exclude 



THE LABOEEBS' CATECHISM 113 

from Yotiug all who are under twenty-one years 
of age, it has a similar right, when striving to 
promote the general welfare, to prescribe what 
must be the qualifications of all electors, in order 
to guard most effectually against fraud of all 
kinds. 

Am I to understand that under the Perpetual 
Voting System electors loill be voting ^%ll the 
time^^f No. What does ^'PerpetvAiV^ mean as 
used to describe PerpetiMl Voting? It means that 
when an elector writes in the proper place on the 
Vote Kecord, the name of his choice for any 
office, and lets the name stand unchanged, that 
(whenever the vote is counted^ whether every 
week, month, six months, or every year) said 
elector is voting perpetually for that particular 
candidate. 

How would this system prevent vote-buying? 
By permitting the elector to change his vote once 
in each week, the buyer' would be forced to keep 
the vote-seller constantly supplied with money; 
otherwise the vote-seller would not continue sup- 
porting the vote-buyer's candidate, but would 
vote for an opposition-candidate in order to com- 
pel the vote-buyer to provide the vote-seller with 
more money. As the vote-buyers could not fur- 
nish sufficient money to induce all the vote-sellers, 
or an important part of them, to constantly vote 
for the vote-buyers' candidates, the latter would 
abandon the vote-buying business. 



114 THE. LABOEEES' CATE'OHISM 

LESSON XIII. 

Would you require each state to collect its two 
per cent anmial taw or rent on all real and per- 
sonal property^ situated in the United States? 
No. I would have the National goyernment col- 
lect it, and then expend it for improYements in 
each state according to the number of inhabit- 
ants. Why so? Because it is only by having the 
Federal government collect the two per cent 
annual rent or tax from the owners of all real 
and personal property, throughout the United 
States, in proportion to its value, that equality of 
taxation among the citizens of the United States 
can be carried into practice. Can you make your 
point clearer l)y illustration? Yes, an acre of soil 
at the corner of Wall and Broad streets, New 
York City, at the same price in money for which 
some of the property on this corner has been sold, 
is equivalent in value to the value of |20,000,000. 
An acre of some kinds of ordinary land in Chau- 
tauqua County, New York State, is equivalent in 
value to only the value of $20. If a two per cent 
tax or rent were collected annually from each 
owner of these respective acres, by New York 
State, on these valuations, the owner of the Broad 
and Wall streets acre would be forced to pay into 
New York State's treasury $400,000 and the 
Cautauqua County acre's owner would be com- 
pelled to pay into the Ettnpire State's treasury 40 
cents, making a total of $400,000.40 paid into New 



THEl LABORERS' OATEOHISM 115 

York State's treasury to be used for the public 
benefit of the inhabitant's; of the Empire State, in 
which these two particular New York State 
owners would participate and share alike. Be- 
tween these two owners^ there would be equality 
of taxation. But if a man in Logan County, 111., 
owning an acre of soil equivalent in value to f 20, 
were to pay annually a two per cent tax or rent 
into Illinois' State treasury, he would not be 
equally taxed when compared with the New York 
State acre-owners because he would receive no 
benefit from the |400,000 paid into New York 
State's treasury, as the Ghautauqua county |20 
acre owner would. Would not the Illinois owner 
of the |20 acre^ in Logan county^ obtain a benefit 
from a two per cent annual taw collected by the 
state of Illinois from a citizen who owned an acre 
of soil in Chicago^ equivalent in value to the 
value of 150,000^ just as the Chautauqua county 
$20 acre owner receives a benefit from the 
1400,000 paid by the Wall and Broad streets 
acre-owner into New York Staters treasury^ pro- 
vided the two per cent tax^ or rent^ loere paid into 
the Illinois State treasury ^ to be expended in pub- 
lic improvements? He would, but the Illinois 
real and personal property owners, as well as all 
other citizens of the United States, are entitled to 
a share in the benefits to be derived from the 
1400,000 as well as New York State's real and 
personal property owners, because the Wall and 



116 THE LABORERiS' OATEOHISM 

Broad streets' acre belongs in common to all the 
citizens of the United States, as well aisi to the 
citizens of New York State. 

Have you any other reason for insisting that 
Illinois citizens and the citizens of all other 
states should share in the puhlic benefits to he 
supplied hy the expenditure of the |400,000? I 
have. What is it? The prodigious mountain of 
yalue or ^^purchasing power/' exercised by the 
owners of the Broad and Wall streets acre, is 
due in part to the wants and existence of the peo- 
ple residing throughout the United States^ and 
to the useful and valuable things taken by con- 
tract from them, directly or indirectly, by the 
Wall and Broad streets-acre-owner, and the value 
of the acre should therefore, be ishared in by all 
the citizens of the United States, instead of by 
New York State's citizens alone. Consequently, 
in order to equalize taxation on a just basis 
throughout the United States, our federal govern- 
ment should collect a two per cent tax or rent on 
the full value of all real and personal property, 
(with the exceptions heretofore mentioned) 
situated in the United States; and then expend it 
for public improvements throughout the United 
States, or for whatever purpose the people of the 
United States, by means of their laws should or- 
der. What is your reason for helieving that the 
Federal Government should collect the two per 
cent rent^ or tax^ from the owivers of all real and 



THE! LABOEERS' OATEICHISM 117 

personal property throughout the United States? 
For tlie purpose of establishing equality of taxa- 
tion on tlie basis of VALUEi among all owners of 
real and personal property throughout the United 
States. 

Do not the owners of personal property pay 
tawes to their respective states on their personal 
property according to its full value? They do not. 
Why not? Because under the personal property 
laws of the various states, personal property 
owners are supposed to be taxed on their prop- 
erty, at the residence of the owners, and the 
owners generally, by elaiming residence in states 
in w*hich the personal property is not situated, or 
by offsetting it with fictitious debts, evade the 
payment of taxesi or public rent on the largest 
part of their personal property. Can you give a 
specific example of how^ personal property owners 
evade the payment of taxes on the full value of 
their property? I can. In New York, N. Y., 
reside many owners of vast quantities of personal 
property, in the form of bonds, stocks, yachts, 
paintings, automobiles, mortgages, machinery, 
works of art, etc., on which is paid little or no 
taxes. A former New York City tax commis- 
sioner claims that the value of all personal prop- 
erty owned by persons actually or nominally 
residentsi of New York City, equals the value of 
$70,000,000,000 in United States money. The 
larger part of this great quantity of personal- 



118 THEI LABOEEES' OATECHISM 

property-Yalue, is due to the fact tliat people re- 
ading, generally outride of New York City and 
without Wall street connections, are supplying 
the interest, earnings, diyidends, and other forms 
of ^^purchasing power" collected by the owners of 
this enormous quantity of personal property. By 
permitting this vast quantity of valuable per- 
sonal property to be unrecorded, there isi no per- 
^onal-property-list, in any office, similar to the 
real property-lists found in County Clerks' offices, 
which can be examined by assessors, in order to 
discover what owners are avoiding the payment 
of taxes on the full value of their personal prop- 
erty. In the year 1909, this vast quantity of 
personal property OAvned by actual or nominal 
residents of New York City escaped taxation, with 
the exception of $443,000,000. If two per centum 
of the full value of this seventy billions of dol- 
lars in "purchasing power'' were collected an- 
nually by the Federal government and expended 
for the benefit of all the citizens of the United 
States, the injustice done citizens residing outside 
of New York city by permitting said New York 
owners of this vast quantity of personal property 
to escape the payment of their public rent or 
taxes on so large a proportion, would be re- 
moved. Were these New York owners of persona] 
property required to pay taxes on the full value 
of their personal property at a two per cent rate, 
into the United States Treasury, the Secretary 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 119 

of the Treasury would have |1,400,000,000 to ex- 
pend, annually^ on national public improvements, 
besides the additional revenue which would come 
from the owners of other real and personal prop- 
erty in the United States which now escapes 
taxation, more or less; provided the Ownership 
Recording Law and the Self Assessment Law, 
heretofore described, were w^ritten on our national 
statute books and enforced. Would you aUoiD 
personal property oioners to deduct their debts 
from the value of their personal property, and 
then pay taxes or piihlic rent on the value of the 
remainder? I would, if the creditors were Ameri- 
can citizens and they were paying taxes on the 
full value of the debts. Would you apply the 
same rule to the owners of real property? I 
would. In what way? By permitting real prop- 
erty owners, who are the legal owners, to deduct 
the value of the mortgages from the value of the 
mortgaged real property, and then paying taxes 
on the remainder, termed in law the ^^equity.'' 
Would not the lenders of money charge the taxes 
imposed on the owners of mortgages up to the 
horroioers, when the latter negotiated their 
loans? They would try to, but when Just Money 
is issued in the manner heretofore described, bor- 
rower si would not be at the mercy of the private 
owners of money, as they now are; and as every 
owner of real and personal property would be 
compelled to pay taxes on the full value of his 



120 THE LABOEEES' CATEOHISM 

property, witli tlie exceptions heretofore describ- 
ed, taxes or public rent, would be collected from 
the owners of valuable property, no matter what 
the form of the valuable property ; as a result, the 
schemesi to shift the burden of taxes to the worker 
would fail and no provident worker wo aid be 
forced to borrow money in order to buy a 
home, or be forced to mortgage his property 
above the amount held under the |2,000 Home- 
stead Exemption Law. Hoic could our govern- 
ment raise tear funds, loheiv iiecessary tinder the 
si/stem of government you are advocating? If 
the two per cent tax, or rent, would not supply 
sufl&cient money for war purposes, the raising of 
the rate to three or four per cent would. But if 
tihe aforesaid systems of voting, finance and tax- 
ation, were adopted, throughout the w^orld, the 
reduction in value of all useful things on this 
earth about ninety per cent of their former value, 
would destroy the greater part of the ^^war incen- 
tive'' which now exists, because of the extraordi- 
narily high value of useful things and the diffi- 
culty of an important part of the populations of 
all nations to procure a sufllciency of food, cloth- 
ing and shelter. If every nation on this earth were 
to bring into use the land, houses, patents, ma- 
chinery, etc., within its territory now partly or 
wholly held out of use, or being used for frivol- 
ous purposes, no nation would, now or in the 
future, seek war as an excuse for despoiling some 



THE LABOREES' CATECHISM 121 

other nation, in order to supply its own people 
with a sufficiencj^ of food, clothing or shelter, or 
a select few^ of its wealthy citizens with orna- 
ment. If the plan of government, herein advo- 
cated, were to be adopted throughout the world, 
it would not be long before every intelligent per- 
son would discover that wars are expressily pre- 
cipitated for the purpose of diverting the atten- 
tion of the oppressed, from their oppressors, 
( kings, plutocrats, bureaucrats, corporations, 
etc.,) who in the excitement brought about by 
wars, continue their exploiting of the producers 
with more impunity than formerly. Would you 
require every article of merchandise^ lahich a mer- 
chant has in his store ^ to he recorded on the per- 
sonal property list to he kept in the Assembly 
District Recording office? I would. Why? Be- 
cause it would not do to permit tax-dodgerisi to 
have any excuse for not recording their property. 
Could a person buy any or several articles in a 
merchanf s store at the price it teas asssesed in 
the Assembly District Recording office? He 
could not. He would be required to buy the 
whole stock at the amount on which the merchant 
had assessed his whole stock, for taxation pur- 
poses. What great advantage have these Neio 
York oicmers of undertaxed real and personal 
property^ over citizens in other states? By the 
means of the enormous and partlj^ taxed ^^pur- 
chasing power" exercised through their owner- 



122 THE LAEOEEES' CATECHISM 

ship of this great quantity of valuable real and 
personal property^ they command the serviceis' of 
unskilled laborers, mechanics^ legislators, poli- 
ticians, etc., throughout the United States to 
such an extent, that they can corrupt, and fre- 
quently do, nearly every state and national legis- 
lature, enact or repeal laws, legalize ofBcial or 
unoflflcial dishonesty, exploit innocent toilers, 
seduce great numbers of unsophisticated women, 
or do almost anything, however degrading or un- 
scrupulous, for which money or other kinds of 
"purchasing power'' can compensate. Cannot 
each separate state, hj/ enacting just real and per- 
sonal property laios, control and regulate the 
^^pitrchasing power^^ of their respective property 
owners? It cannot. Only the national govern- 
ment can exercise this function justly and effect- 
ively. The "purchasing power" of real and per- 
sonal property owners reaches beyond all state 
lines. Is not the ^^purchasing powei^^ enjoyed hy 
New York City^s wealthy citizens due to the nat- 
ural advantages of the city^s location? Some of 
it is; but the greater part is due to the fact that 
New York City is a secure asylum for personal 
property tax-dodgers, and is also the headquar- 
ters of the chief money-owners in the United 
States. Why is the metropolis a safe retreat for 
personal property tax dodgers? Because the tax 
laws of New York State are so lax that personal 
property owners in said state are not compelled 



THE LABOEERS' CATECHISM 123 

to record their property in any ^^reeording of- 
fice/' and for the additional reason, that, when a 
personal property o\Yner falsely states the 
amount of hisi indebtedness, that he may dednct it 
from the amount of the assessment of the per- 
sonal property on which he is liable for taxation, 
the tax commissioners of New York City seldom 
examine under oath, the so called creditors or 
alleged owners of said debts, for the purpose of 
discovering, whether or not, the indebtedneSiS is 
fictitious. Woiold the collection of the Two Per 
Cent rent or taw from all real and personal prop- 
erty oimierSy throughout the United States, hy the 
Federal Government^ prevent personal property 
owners from claiming or establishing residences 
in different states, in their efforts to avoid the 
payment of any tax or rent on their personal 
property? If it did not prevent them from mov- 
ing about so frequently, when discovered, it 
would convince them of the futility of attempting 
to avoid the payment of their taxesi or piablic rent, 
provided the Ownership Eecord and Self Assess- 
ment laws were enforced. Eoio do the tax com- 
missioners of 'New York City learn the names of 
personal property owners, residing or claiming 
residence in New- York City? By guessing at 
them, with more or less good faith. What do. yon 
mean? I mean that the tax commissioners of 
New York City have no official list of personal- 
property-owner^ similar to the real property list 



124 THE LABOREES' CATElOHISM 

kept in tlie New York City tax office. Conse- 
quently, New York City's tax commissioners or 
their employees, look through the city and busi- 
ness directories, and search indifferently for 
names displayed in capital letters, or the names 
of brokers, bankers, lawyers, merchants, etc., and 
after making a guess as to who may or may not 
have valuable personal property, send such per- 
sons legal commands to report to the tax office 
and testify, under oath, as to their possession of 
valuable personal property. Can you explain 
why owners of large qitantities of personal prop- 
erty {men like Ludreia Tarnagie) deliberately 
select Isfew York City as a haven, ichen desirous of 
avoiding the payment of their personal property 
taxes? Yes. Because New Y'ork City's tax com- 
missioners will tax such ownersi ^^by consent.'' 
What do you mean ^'^hy consentf^^ When a rich 
personal property owner from the west or south 
or any state, other than New York, is dissatisfied 
with his personal property assessment, he or his 
attorney \dsits the New York City tax commis- 
sioners, and after claiming residence in New 
York City, agrees to pay taxes on a very insig- 
nificant assessment, to which the commissioners 
consent, on the ground that if they refused to 
accept the personal property owner's proposition, 
he w^ould claim residence in some state-of-New- 
Jersey-town in which the tax-assessors would 
agree to assess him on a smaller amount, and 



THE LABORERS' OATEOHISM 125 

New York City would, as a result, receive nothing 
in the form of taxes from said owner's personal 
property. Have you any other reason? Yes. 
New York City is: an excellent place for living 
in a large apartment house, in which access to a 
native-personal-property-owner, or an owner who 
is dodging the payment of taxes on personal 
property which ought to be paid in his former 
western or southern home, is unapproachable, to 
any kind of a process server. These tax dodging 
personal property owners can seldom be sur- 
prised while in said apartment rooms ; because all 
persons seeking them must disclose the nature of 
their missions, through a telephone to the dodger 
or his secretary^ before he is permitted to see 
the personal property owner and evader of proc- 
ess-service; or else the person desiring the inter- 
view must convince the person hiding that his 
mission is not that of a messenger from Justice. 
What icould he the effect of the Ownership Re- 
cording Law and the Self Assessment Laio on 
the various stock and prodwce exchanges in Netv 
York City and other large speculating centers? 
Were these laws enforced on the owners of all 
real and personal property throughout the United 
States, by the Federal Government collecting the 
Two Per Cent rent, or tax, annually, on the full 
value of all property, with the exceptions here- 
tofore mentioned, and were the power of issuing 
money taken out of the hands of private indi- 



126 THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 

yiduals, banking corporations^ etc., and placed 
exclusively in the handsi of tlie U. S. Secretary 
of the Treasury, in the manner hereinbefore de- 
scribed, the power of all speculating-exchianges in 
these United States to monopolize or manipulate 
money and commodities, would be so materially 
reduced that such bodies could no longer be a 
species of parasite on the body politic of society. 
Which is the most powerful trusty existing under 
our present government f The money or banking 
trust. Whi/ so? Because the money or banking 
trust is the keystone of the ^^trust arch'' which 
holds the great majority of trusts in this country 
together. How do you make that out? For tlie 
reason that it is the money or banking trust, 
which dictatesi to and regulates all the other large 
monopolies, such as those of meat, coal, oil, land, 
iron, sugar, lumber, etc., and makes it possible for 
the ^^cornering" of such commodities to be suc- 
cessful. Can you make this point clearer? Yes. 
When Parmour contemplates ^^cornering" meat, 
he must secure the appfroval of 1;Jie money or 
banking trust; otherwise the latter trust would 
refuse to let him have the amount of money neces- 
sary to employ his agentsi, in buying up the most 
important part of all saleable meat. If the 
^^money trust" were to condemn Parmour's 
scheme, it would not permit him to monopolize 
the meat market, and as a result of the bankers 
refusing to let him have the necessary amount of 



THE LABORERS' CATECHISM 127 

money, the ^^corner'' would fail. Gavemeyer, 
Batten, Hockfeller, Lorgan and other great own- 
ers of partly taxed wealth, who are generally part 
bankers, proceed, with the approval of the bank- 
ers, in a similar manner. Thus it is, that 
the bankers have first ^^insighf' into almost every 
^^cornering'^ scheme; consequently, they can re- 
tard or promote almost every monopolistic con- 
spiracy undertaken in this country. And it is 
even so with stocks. When a corporation's stock 
is put on the financial market, the bankers by 
refusing to lend money on it, can substantially 
destroy the purchasing-power of its owners. On 
the other hand, the bankers, by lending money on 
a worthless stock, can increase its value until it 
advances in money price to the figure at wnich 
it is profitable for those on the ^^inside,'' with the 
assistance of lies and false financial reports, to 
sell. Would the owners of all kinds of stocks^ 
whether ivatered or not^ be forced to record their 
stock in some Assembly District Recording office j 
in which the owner lived^ under the penalty of 
forfeiting it to the first person who discovered it 
unrecorded? They would, if it were, or about to 
become, valuable. Would you, by law^ force the 
owner to sell the stock at the valuation on which 
he was paying the Two Per Gent rent or ta<rf I 
would. Would not the purchaser ^^ in this man- 
ner^ buy it too cheap from the owner? Then let 
the owner assess the stock at its true valuation 



128 THE LABOKEES' CATECHISM 

or a little higher in order to protect himself. 
Two per centum is only two dollars on each 
one hundred dollars. Yet two per cent annually^ 
on the value or ^^purchasing power^' of all watered 
stock, w ould bring a great revenue to the federal 
government and serve as a deterrent to those 
unscrupulous promoters who issue watered stock, 
for the express purpose of extorting interest and 
dividendsi from the people. How tvould the Two 
Per Cent tax or rent effect the monopolizers of 
food? It w^ould force the owners of food kept 
in cold storage warehouses, or elsewhere, to pay 
two per cent annually on the full value of the 
food being held for a future rise in value or 
money price, as well as upon the full value of the 
cold-storage plant. But the greatest benefit de- 
rived from this tax, or rent, would go to the 
workers, who being enabled to obtain land and 
other valuable property at a low valuation, would 
produce a very important part of everything they 
needed, and in this manner, be relieved from the 
necessity of buying at exhorbitant prices, from 
the (at present) tax dodging trusts. Do you 
hnom of any country in which this idea of huying 
an owner^s property at the valuation in the puhlic 
record^ on which he is paying taxes is prac- 
ticed? Yes, New Zealand employs this idea in 
part, when collecting taxes on land. How so? 
Whenever an owner of land in New Zealand is 
dissatisfied with his assessment, the New Zealand 



THE LABORERS' CATEOHISM 129 

goyernineiit pays the owner the amount at which 
it is assessed, plus ten per centum of the amount, 
and then takes possession of the land as goyern- 
ment property, to be sold to a new purchaser. 

LESSON XIV 

What is this ^'lihertif^ about which the mem- 
hers of all schools of political economy talk more 
or less? ^Tiberty is the equal, indefeasible right 
of all citizens, to use all wealth, in their own way, 
and for their own individual benefit; the right of 
each being limited only by the equal right of every 
other." Eas liberty any relation to the making 
of conti^acts? Yes, Liberty includes the right to 
make or not to make any legal contract concern- 
ing our services or our property and have it en- 
forced. Can a government prevent its citizens 
from making contracts? Only in a limited de- 
gree. Why so? Because citizens will make rea- 
sonable contracts in secrecy and carry them out 
in secrecy, even when prohibited by the govern- 
ment. What is a contract? Briefly, a contract 
is an agreement to do or not to do some act for 
a useful or valuable consideration. 

Should a truly republican government encour- 
age the making of contracts? It should when 
they are just. W% so? Because by the means 
of contracts, time and labor may be economized 
— thus enabling the devotion of more human 
effort to useful education and elevating amuse- 



130 THE L.ABOEERS' OATECHISM 

ment,, on the part of all laborers. Have yoti any 
axioms or principles with which to examine the 
justice of all laws concerning contracts? I have. 
What are theyf They are rules and axioms 
evolyed from the experience of the different na- 
tions on this earth, in their efforts to preserve 
themiselves, triumph over their enemies, or pro- 
mote the general welfare of humanity. Can you 
further explain them? Yes. They are a set of 
postulates which, if strictly adhered to by a gov- 
ernment, will promote the general welfare of 
its people in the greatest degree and they are 
as follows : 

All men have an equal right to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness. 

All men should be equal before the law. 

The sovereignty of a goyernment should be 
vested in the whole people to whom it of natural 
right belongs. 

Every truly dem^ocratic government is an agent 
of the whole people and should exercise its power 
only with the consent of the governed. 

In production we should strive to exercise as 
much economy of time and labor as possible. 

Every person should have the privilege of pur- 
suing whatever legal vocation he pleases, pro- 
vided that in so doing he effects no person un- 
justly. 

Public officials should be public servants in 
practice, as well as in theory. 



THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 131 

Tlie income a citizen receives should be in 
direct proportion to the service he renders the 
connnunity; that is, if his service is large, his 
income should be large; and if his service is 
small, his income should be small. 

Every person engaged in any legal vocation is 
supposed to render the community a service. 

Every man should pay annually a two per cent 
tax or public rent to the community, for the 
wealth he is using, in proportion to the value of 
the wealth he u^es. 

The man who economizes should be permitted 
to enjoy the fruits of his economy. 

Those persons best qualified for doing specific 
work are the persons who should be encouraged 
to do such work. 

Every competent person should be required by 
law to produce at the least, as much as he con- 
sumes. 

All men should be considered innocent of any 
criminal intent until duly proven guilty by the 
law of the land. 

The welfare of the individual should be sub- 
ordinate to that of the community, limited by the 
inalienable natural rights of the individual. 

The higher ownership of all real and personal 
property is vested by natural right in the whole 
people. 

That act onlj^ should be done which results in 



132 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

the greatest good to the greatest number, without 
inyading individual natural rights. 

The will of the majority should always prevail, 
when individual natural rights are not invaded. 

No man should he deprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law. 

An injury to one is the concern of all. 

The benefit of all is the concern of each. 

^^There is only one right way of doing things, 
all other ways are necessarily wrong in some de- 
gree.'' 

^^A truly democratic government should not en- 
gage in business of any kind, unless it can do so 
in a better manner and at a less cost than the 
same business can be done by private enterprise.'' 

No private citizen's property should be taken 
from him and given to another private citizen. 

^^The intensity of our desires are correctly mea- 
sured by the quantity of effort we are willing to 
expend in satisfying them," 

The foregoing postulates, if rigidly observed by 
our law-makers, would reduce enormously the 
number of legislative enactments, annually in- 
scribed on our statute books, and bring simplicity 
out of the chaotic state in which law is now gen- 
erally known to be. These axioms and prin- 
ciples (the principles are found in the nature of 
things) if taken together, will serve as a ^^law- 
crucible" with which to test all man-made- 
statutesi. Any law, which conflicts with any of 



THE, LABOEEES' CATECHISM 133 

these axioms or principles, will not fit into said 
crucible and sliould be immediately repealed or 
removed from our statute books, on tlie tlieory 
that it is wrong, unjust or impracticable, and in 
the course of time will be discovered by the people 
to be wrong, unjust or imptracticable. Is there 
not much confusion among latvyers and students 
of political economy^ in the use of the important 
terms necessarily employed hy them in their 
e forts to clearly convey their various ideas? 
There is. Horn would you obviate such confu- 
sion? By adopting the following definitions, 
which do not (with the exception of the defini- 
tion of price) violate any of the Eules of iDefini- 
tion agreed upon by proficient logicians, when 
engaged in reasoning about, or describing, the 
principlesi of Natural Law : 

Eight "is that which promotes or increases 
human happiness.''' 

Sovereignty "is the right to define the right 
and enforce the decision. '^ 

OvTNERSHiP "is the right to use or utilize 
wealth.'' Individual ownership is subordinate to 
city-ownership; city-ownership to county-owner- 
ship; county-ownership to state ownership; and 
state-ownership is subordinate to national-owner- 
ship. 

Wealth "is anything that can be utilized." 

Property "is wealth owned." 

Value is purchasing-power. The value of a 



134 THE LABOREES' CATECHISM 

thing ki the purchasing-power which the owner- 
ship of the thing confers on the owner of the 
thing. Value is not an attribute ; it is a relation 
between property and humanity. It cannot be 
qualified. Using the adjectiye — substantives, 
^^intrinsic/' ^^exchange/' ^^money/' "market/' 
"book/' "rental/'' etc., to qualify yalue is like 
attempting to qualify "purchasing-power." There 
is but one kind of value and that is "purchasing- 
power." Scarcity is an indispensable relation 
accompanying value. 

Business is the making of contracts without 
sentiment. 

Capital is "accumulated purchasing povv^ei:." 

Capitalist is an owner of capital. 

Pricei "When two things are exchanged, one 
for the other, each is the price of the other; or 
the price of a thing is that for which it will ex- 
change." 

Labor "is any legal effort to obtain an in- 
come." 

Income "is the wages of labor; it is the legal 
equivalent (in value or "purchasing-power") for 
the products of the person who receives the in- 
come." 

Dollar is a money unit established by a gov- 
ernment. Its most important function is that of 
measuring value. Its subordinate functions are 
those of discharging debt and facilitating ex- 
change. It should fluctuate as little as possible 



THE LABOKERS' CATECHISM 135 

in ^^purchasing-power." It should be a full legal 
tender and be composed of a suitable material 
haying the least value as a commodity. It should 
be based on the Labor Unit. 

Utility ^^is that which satisfies a desire, or 
supplies a want.'' Liberty "m the equal indefeas- 
ible right of all citizens to use ail w^ealth in their 
own way and for their own individual benefit; 
the right of each being limited only by the equal 
right of every other." 

Justice ^^is the rendering to every individual 
his rights, on the basis of equality of natural 
rights to all." 

Rent ^^is the price paid to the owners of 
wealth by the users of wealth." 

Private] Ownership ^^is the right of an indi- 
vidual or plurality of individuals to appropriate 
to their own exclusive use, some part of the com- 
mon estate." 

Law ^^is the formal expression of the collective 
will of the people." 

Aristocracy ^^is that part of society which con- 
trols legislation, subsists upon and exploits the 
other part." Would the employment of the fore- 
going aooioms and definitions, in promoting the 
general welfare , alone establish justice under this 
government or any true republic f They would 
not. Why not? Because a practicable and feasi- 
ble method, with which to prevent vote-buying, 
tax-dodging and money-cornering, (the three 



136 THE LABOKE.ES' OATEIOHISM 

great evils under all governments) must go with 
them. In other words^ we must use the Perpetual 
Voting System in learning the will of the people 
and carrying it out ; the Ownership Record, Self - 
Assessment and Homestead Exemption laws in 
collecting the People's Rent or the two per cent 
Death Rate Tax annually; and the Just Money 
System in measuring the value of all real and 
personal property, when effecting exchanges, or 
assessing real and personal property for the pur- 
poses of taxation or the collection of the People's 
Rent. 

THE END. 

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138 THE LABOEEES' CATECHISM 

The preceding diagTam Tepresents John Taffe's 
page in a Vote Eecording Book^ to be kept in 
every election district office and on which Taffe 
can write on a single line, once in each week, the 
name of any qualified citizen whom he desires to 
occupy any respective office. The election district 
office must be open for voting purposes every day 
in the year, excepting Sundays and legal holi- 
days. At the end of each year, the voter must be 
assigned a new page. The name written on the 
lowest line is his choice for the office named at 
the top. Should Taffe sell his vote, by agreeing 
to vote for P. G. Hill as his candidate for gov- 
ernor, on the receipt of five dollars, he can do so, 
by writing the name of P. G. Hill on a line 
under the title GOVEENOE. The next week he 
can vote for W. Tweed and continue voting for 
Tweed, by letting Tweed's name stand, without 
any name written underneath, until he is given 
five dollars more to write in the name of P. G. 
Hill a second time. The vote-buyers haven't 
money enough to keep all the vote-sellers, or an 
important part of them, constantly supporting 
any particular candidate. 

The elector under this system can change his 
candidate at almost any time and, in this 
manner, directly nominate a candidate and exer- 
cise the ^^power of recall'' over all public officials. 
Should a ^^repeater" write on Taffe's page the 
name of ^^J. Eyan" as the ^^repeater's" choice for 



THE LABOREES^ OATEiOHISM 139 

mayor, the difference between tlie "repeater's" 
handwriting and Taffe's being apparent, the 
evidence on which to convict the "repeater" of a 
crime is easily procured. The "repeater's" vote 
however must not be counted. 

Under "NEiW LAWS" Taff e has voted to intro- 
duce into the state legislature law No. "3050" 
written by himself, and, in congress, law No. 
"2038" also written by himself. Under "LAWS 
EEEEREED" Taffe has exercised the "referen- 
dum" by voting for law No. "98" and against law 
No. "72," both of which have been referred to the 
voters. 

The "60%," at the top of the last right hand 
column, is the peTcentage of votes, which Taffe 
thinks, is necessarj^ to elect a candidate to office. 
He also believes that, when a candidate has less 
than "40%" of the voters supporting him, said 
candidate must vacate his office. According to 
this elector a candidate can go into office when 
"60%" of the voters record him as their choice 
and stay there, until his supporters fall to below 
"40%" of the recorded votes, in the district or 
division through which the candidate runs. It 
is the average of "percentages" as expressed by 
the various voters, that determines the percent- 
age necessary to elect to or remove from office. 

This system of voting embodies direct nomina' 
tions), referendum^, power of recall^ initiative^ pro- 



140 THE LABOEEKS' CATECHISM 

portional voting^ decides whether a plurality or 
majority shall elect to, or remove from office, 
makes it impossible for fraudulent ^'thugs" to 
vote, without leaving indisputable evidence of 
their crime on the Vote Eeeording Book, and 
actually enables the people to control their pub- 
lic officials. 



AUG 20 1913 




lilimm^^ CONGRESS 

027 293 672 9 




tADgsl?y^ ncouwcii.^ 44 



